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A    SYSTEM 


OP 


SYNTHETIC    PHILOSOPHY. 


VOL.  I. 


FIRST 


PEINC  I.PL  E  S 


NEW  SYSTEM  OF  PinLOSOPIIY. 


BY 

HEKBERT  SPENCER, 

ADTHOK  or 

'  niOfcTRATlONS  OF  THflVRBSAI.  PROGRESS,"    "  BBS  ATS,  MORAL,   rOLITICAL   A^D    iESTlIKTUV, 

"TKIKOIPliBS  OF  PSItCUOLOSY,"  "PRINCIPLES  OF  BIOLOOY,"    "  SOCIAL  8T ATI'!©," 

"  BUUCATIOK,"  ETO.,   KTa 


NEW    YOEK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

549    &    551    BROADWAY. 

1870. 


r.2. 


WORKS   BY   HEBBEBT    SFENCEB. 

PUBLISHED   BY   D.   APPLETOxV   &   CO. 


Miscellaneous  Writings. 

EDUCATION— INTELLECTUAL,  MORAL,  AND  PHYSICAL, 
1  vol.,  12ino.    2S3  .pages.    Cloth. 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  UNIVERSAL  PROGRESS.  1  vol.,  large 
12mo.    470  pages.    Cloth. 

ESSAYS— MORAL,  POLITICAL,  AND  ^ESTHETIC  1  toI., 
large  12mo.    418  pages. 

SOCIAL  STATICS;  or,  the  Conditions  Essential  to  Human  Happi- 
ness Specified^  and  the  first  of  them  Developed.  1  vol.,  large  12mo.  523 
pages. 

THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  SCIENCES  :  to  which  is  added 
Reasons  for  Dissenting  from  the  Philosophy  of  M.  Comte.  A  pamphlet  of 
50  pages.    Fine  paper. 

System  of  Philosophy. 

FIRST  PRINCIPLES,  in  Two  Parts— I.  The  Unknowable;  11. 
Laws  of  the  Knowable.    1  vol.,  large  Timo.    508  pages.    Cloth. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  BIOL  OGY,     Vol.  I.  large  12mo.    475  pages. 

**  "  "  Vol.  II.  large  12mo.    5G6  pages. 


INMEMOmAM 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  18(54, 

By  D.  APPLETON  &  CO., 

la  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 

Southern  District  of  New  York. 


PREFACE 

TO    THE    AMERICAN    EDITION 


The  present  volume  is  the  first  of  a  series  designed  to  un 
fold  the  principles  of  a  new  philosophy.  It  is  divided  into  two 
parts :  the  aim  of  the  first  being  to  determine  the  true  sphere 
of  all  rational  investigation,  and  of  the  second,  to  elucidate 
those  fundamental  and  universal  principles  which  science  has 
established  within  that  sphere,  and  which  are  to  constitute  the 
basis  of  the  system.  The  scheme  of  truth  developed  in  these 
First  Principles  is  complete  in  itself,  and  has  its  independent 
value ;  but  it  is  designed  by  the  author  to  serve  for  guidance 
and  verification  in  the  construction  of  the  succeedinsr  and  larojer 
portions  of  his  philosophic  plan.. 

Having  presented  in  his  introductory  volume  so  much  of 
the  general  principles  of  Physics  as  is  essential  to  the  develop- 
ment of  his  method,  Mr.  Spencer  enters  upon  the  subject  of 
Organic  nature.  The  second  work  of  the  series  is  to  be  the 
Principles  of  Biology — a  systematic  statement  of  the  facts  and 
laws  which  constitute  the  Science  of  Life.  It  is  not  to  be  an 
encyclopedic  and  exhaustive  treatise  upon  this  vast  subject, 
but  such  a  compendious  presentation  of  its  data  and  general 
principles  as  shall  interpret  the  method  of  nature,  afford  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  questions  involved,  and  prepare  foi 
further  inquiries.  This  work  is  now  published  in  quarterly 
numbers,  of  from  80  to  96  pages.  Four  of  these  parts  have 
already  appeared,  and  some  idea  of  the  course  and  character 


VI  PREFACE. 

of  the  discussion  may  be  formed  by  observing  the  titles  to  the 
chapters,  which  are  as  follows  : 

Paet  First  :  I.  Organic  Matter ;  IL  The  Actions  of  Forces 
on  Organic  Matter ;  III.  The  Reactions  of  Organic  Matter  on 
Forces ;  IV.  Proximate  Definition  of  Life ;  V.  The  Correspond- 
ence between  Life  and  its  Circumstances;  VI.  The  Degree 
of  Life  varies  with  the  Degree  of  Correspondence;  VII. 
Scope  of  Biology.  Part  Second  :  I.  Growth ;  II.  Develop- 
ment ;  III.  Function ;  IV.  Waste  and  Repair ;  V.  Adaptation ; 
VI.  Individuality;  VII.  Genesis;  VIII.  Heredity;  IX.  Varia- 
tion ;  X.  Genesis,  Heredity,  and  Variation ;  XI.  Classification ; 
XII.  Distribution. 

The  Principles  of  Biology  will  be  followed  by  the  Princi- 
ples of  Psychology ;  that  is,  Mr.  Spencer  will  pass  from  the 
consideration  of  Life  to  the  study  of  Mind.  This  subject  will 
be  regarded  in  the  light  of  the  great  truths  of  Biology  pre- 
viously established ;  the  connections  of  life  and  mind  will  be 
traced ;  the  evolution  of  the  intellectual  faculties  in  their  due 
succession,  and  in  correspondence  with  the  conditions  of  the 
environment,  will  be  unfolded,  and  the  whole  subject  of  mind 
will  be  treated,  not  by  the  narrow  metaphysical  methods,  but 
in  its  broadest  aspect,  as  a  phase  of  nature's  order  which  can 
only  be  comprehended  in  the  light  of  her  universal  plan. 

The  fourth  work  of  the  series  is  Sociology,  or  the  science 
of  human  relations.  As  a  multitude  is  but  an  assemblage  of 
units,  and  as  the  characteristics  of  a  multitude  result  from  the 
properties  of  its  units,  so  social  phenomena  are  consequences 
of  the  natures  of  individual  men.  Biology  and  Psychology 
are  the  two  great  keys  to  the  knowledge  of  human  nature; 
and  hence  from  these  Mr.  Spencer  naturally  passes  to  the  sub- 
ject of  Social  Science.  The  growth  of  society,  the  conditions 
of  its  intellectual  and  moral  progress,  the  development  of  its 
various  activities  and  organizations,  will  be  here  described,  and 
a  statement  made  of  those  principles  which  are  essential  to 
the  successful  regulation  of  social  affairs. 

Lastly,  in  Part  Fifth,  Mr.  Spencer  proposes  to  consider  the 
Principles  of  Morality.  The  truths  furnished  by  Biology,  Psy- 
chology, and  Sociology  will  be  here  brought  to  bear,  to  deter- 


PREFACE.  Vii 

inine  correct  rules  of  human  action,  the  principles  of  private 
and  public  justice,  and  to  form  a  true  theory  of  right  living. 

The  reader  will  obtain  a  more  just  idea  of  the  extent  and  pro- 
portions of  Mr.  Spencer's  philosophic  plan,  by  consulting  his 
prospectus  at  the  close  of  the  volume.  It  will  be  seen  to 
embrace  a  wide  range  of  topics,  but  in  the  present  work,  and 
m  his  profound  and  original  volumes  on  the  "Principles  of 
Psychology "  and  "  Social  Statics,"  as  also  throughout  his 
numerous  Essays  and  Discussions,  we  discover-  that  he  has 
already  traversed  almost  the  entire  field,  while  to  elaborate  the 
whole  into  one  connected  and  organized  philosophical  scheme, 
is  a  work  well  suited  to  his  bold  and  comprehensive  genius. 
"With  a  metaphysical  acuteness  equalled  only  by  his  immense 
grasp  of  the  results  of  physical  science — alike  remarkable 
for  his  profound  analysis,  constructive  ability,  and  power  of 
lucid  and  forcible  statement,  Mr.  Spencer  has  rare  endow- 
ments for  the  task  he  has  undertaken,  and  can  hardly  fail  to 
embody  in  his  system  the  largest  scientific  and  philosophical 
tendencies  of  the  age. 

As  the  present  volume  is  a  working  out  of  universal  prin- 
ciples to  be  subsequently  applied,  it  is  probably  of  a  more  ab- 
stract character  than  will  be  the  subsequent  works  of  the 
series.  The  discussions  strike  down  to  the  profoundest  basis 
of  human  thought,  and  involve  the  deepest  questions  upon 
which  the  intellect  of  man  has  entered.  Those  unaccustomed 
to  close  metaphysical  reasoning,  may  therefore  find  parts  of 
the  argument  not  easy  to  follow,  although  it  is  here  pre- 
sented with  a  distinctness  and  a  vigor  to  be  found  perhaps  in  no 
other  author.  Still,  the  chief  portions  of  the  book  may  be  read 
by  all  with  ease  and  pleasure,  while  no  one  can  fail  to  be  re- 
paid for  the  pljrsistent  efibrt  that  may  be  required  to  master 
the  entire  argument.  All  who  have  sufficient  earnestness 
of  nature  to  take  interest  in  those  transcendent  questions 
which  are  now  occupying  the  most  advanced  minds  of  the  age, 
will  find  them  here  considered  with  unsurpassed  clearness, 
originality,  and  power. 

The  invigorating  influence  of  philosophical  studies  upon 
the  mind,  and  their  consequent  educational  value,  have  been 


VI 11  PREFACE. 

loEg  recognized.  In  tliis  point  of  view  the  system  here  pre 
Rented  has  high  claims  upon  the  young  men  of  our  country, — 
embodying  as  it  does  the  latest  and  largest  results  of  positive 
science ;  organizing  its  facts  and  principles  upon  a  natural  meth- 
od, which  places  them  most  perfectly  in  command  of  memory ; 
and  converging  all  its  lines  of  inquiry  to  the  end  of  a  high  prac- 
tical beneficence, — the  unfolding  of  those  laws  of  nature  and 
human  nature  which  determine  personal  welfare  and  the  social 
polity.  Earnest  and  reverent  in  temper,  cautious  in  statement, 
severely  logical  and  yet  presenting  his  views  in  a  transparent 
and  attractive  style  which  combines  the  precision  of  science 
with  many  of  the  graces  of  lighter  composition,  it  is  believed 
that  the  thorough  study  of  Spencer's  philosophical  scheme  would 
combine,  in  an  unrivalled  degree,  those  prime  requisites  of  the 
highest  education,  a  knowledge  of  the  truths  which  it  is  most 
important  for  man  to  know,  and  that  salutary  discipline  of  the 
mental  faculties  which  results  from  their  systematic  acquisition. 
We  say  the  young  men  of  our  country^  for  if  we  are  not 
mistaken,  it  is  here  that  Mr.  Spencer  is  to  find  his  largest 
and  fittest  audience.  There  is  something  in  the  bold  hand- 
ling of  his  questions,  in  his  earnest  and  fearless  appeal  to  first 
principles,  and  in  the  practical  availability  of  his  conclusions, 
which  is  eminently  suited  to  the  genius  of  our  people.  It  has 
been  so  in  a  marked  sense  with  his  work  on  Education,  and  there 
is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  so  in  an  equal  degree  with  his 
other  writings.  They  betray  a  profound  sympathy  with  the 
best  spirit  of  our  institutions,  and  that  noble  aspiration  for  the 
welfiire  and  improvement  of  society  which  can  hardly  fail  to 
commend  them  to  the  more  liberal  and  enlightened  portions 
of  the  American  public. 


PREFACE   TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 


When  the  First  Edition  of  tliis  work  was  published,  I  sup- 
posed that  the  general  theory  set  forth  in  its  Second  Part, 
was  presented  in  something  like  a  finished  form ;  but  sub- 
sequent thought  led  me  to  further  developments  of  much 
importance,  and  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  component 
parts  of  the  theory  had  been  wrongly  put  together. 
Even  in  the  absence  of  a  more  special  reason,  I  had  decided 
that,  on  the  completion  of  the  Frincijples  of  Biology y  it  would 
be  proper  to  suspend  for  a  few  months  the  scries  I  am 
issuing,  that  I  might  make  the  required  re-organization. 
And  when  the  time  had  arrived,  there  had  arisen  a  more 
special  reason,  which  forbade  hesitation.  Translations  into 
the  French  and  Bassian  languages  were  about  to  be  made 
- — had,  in  fact,  been  commenced ;  and  had  •!  deferred  the 
re-organization  the  work  would  have  been  reproduced  with 
all  its  original  imperfections.  This  will  be  a  suflQcient 
explanation  to  those  who  have  complained  of  the  delay  in 
the  issue  of  the  Frinci^les  of  Fsycliology. 

The  First  Part  remains  almost  untouched:  two  verbal 
alterations  only,  on  pp.  43  and  S9,  having  been  made  to 
prevent  misconceptions.  Part  II.,  however,  is  wholly 
transformed.  Its  first  chapter,  on  "Laws  in  General,'^  is 
omitted,  with  a  view  to  the  inclusion  of  it  in  one  of  the 
latter  volumes  of  the  series.  Two  minor  chapters  disappear. 
Most  of  the  rest  are  transposed,  in  groups  or  singly. 
And  there  are  nine  new  chapters  embodying  the  further 
developments,  and  serving  to  combine  the  pre-existing 
chapters  into  a  changed  whole.     The  following  scheme  in 


X  PREFACE   TO   THE    SECOND   EDITION. 

which  the  new  chapters  are  marked  by  italics^  will  give  an 
idea  of  the  transformation  i — 


First  Edition. 

LtzTTg-ifi^-G  oncral. 

The  Law  of  Evolution. 

The  Law  of  Evolution  (continued). 

Tlte-Ga'ascs  of  Evolution  r- 

Space,  Time,  Matter,  Motion,  and 

Force. 
The  Indestructibility  of  Matter. 
The  Continuity  of  Motion. 
The  Persistence  of  Force, 


The  Correlation  and  Equivalence 

of  Forces. 
The  Direction  of  Motion. 
The  Rhythm  of  Motion. 


The-GoHf''-^^' 
latioa. 


eesential-ta  Evo- 


The    Instability    of    the     Homo- 
geneous. 
The  Multiplication  of  Effects. 
Differentiation  and  Integration. 
Equilibration. 

Summary  and  Conclusion. 


Second  Edition. 

Philosophy  JDefined. 
The  Data  of  Fhihsophy. 


Space,  Time,  Matter,  Motion, 
and  Force. 

The  Indestructibility  of  Matter 

The  Continuity  of  Motion. 

The  Persistence  of  Force. 

The  Persistence  of  lielatloiu 
among  Forces. 

The  Transformation  and  Equi- 
valence of  Forces. 

The  Direction  of  Motion. 

The  Ehythm  of  Motion. 

Becapitulation,  Criticism,  a7id 
Recommencement 

Evolution  ajid  Dissolution, 

Simple  and  Compmmd  Evolution. 

TheLawofEvolution.v     -p^  „„ 
N    Ke-ar- 

The  Law  of  Evolution  1  ranched 

(continued).  \  witifad- 

The  Law  of  Evolution  j  ditions. 
(continued).             ) 

The  Law  of  Evolittion  {con,' 
eluded). 

Tlie  Interpretation  of  EvolutioiK 

The  Instability  of  the  Homo- 
geneous. 

The  Multiplication  of  Effects. 

Segregation. 

Equilibration. 

Dissolution, 

Summary  and  Conclusion  (Re- 
written). 


Of  course   throughout    this    re-organized   Second  Part 
the     numbers     of    the     sections     have     been     changed 


PHEFACE   TO  THE   SECOND  EDITION. 


XI 


and  hence  tiiose  who  possess  the  Princijples  of  Biology,  in 
which  many  references  are  made  to  passages  in  First  Frin^ 
ciples,  would  be  inconvenienced  by  the  want  of  corre- 
spondence between  the  numbers  of  the  sections  in  the  ori- 
ginal edition  and  in  the  new  edition^  were  they  without  any 
means  of  identifying  the  sections  as  now  numbered. 
The  annexed  hst^  showing  which  section  answers  to  which 
in  the  two  editions^  will  meet  the  requirement : — 


First 

Second 

First 

Second 

f    First 

Second 

First 

Second 

First      Second 

Edit.        Edit. 

Edit. 

Edit. 

Edit-. 

Edit. 

Edit 

Edit 

Edit.        Edit 

§43  §119 

rio7 

§72 

§58 

§92 

§81 

§121  §161 

44     117 

108 

73 

59 

93 

82 

122     162 

45     118 

109 

74 

60 

94 

83 

123     163 

46     120 

110 

75 

61 

95 

8i 

124     164 

47     121 

§56  < 

111 

76 

62 

96 

85 

125     165 

48     122 

112 

77 

QQ> 

97 

SQ 

126     166 

49     f23 

113 

78 

Q>1 

98 

87 

127     167 

60     124 

114 

79 

Q>^ 

99 

88 

,    128     168 

51     125 

115 

80 

69 

109 

149 

129     169 

52     126 

61 

46 

81 

70 

110 

150 

130     170 

53     128 

62 

47 

82 

71 

111 

151 

131     171 

54     129 

63 

48 

83 

72 

112- 

152 

132     172 

ri3o 

64 

49 

84 

73 

113 

153 

133    173 

131 

65 

50 

85 

74 

114 

154 

134     174 

132 

m 

52 

86 

75 

115 

155 

135     175 

55- 

133 

67 

53 

87 

76 

116 

156 

136     176 

134 

(SS 

54 

88 

77 

117 

157 

'»'{S 

135 

69 

55 

89 

78 

118 

158 

136 

70 

56 

90 

79 

119 

159 

14i     193 

\Z1 

71 

57 

91 

80 

120 

160 

145.    194 

The  original  stereotype  plates  have  been  used  wherever 
it  was  possible;  and  hence  the  exact  correspondence  be- 
tween the  two  editions  in  many  places^  even  where,  adjacent 
pages  are  altered. 


London,  November,  1867 


PREFACE. 


Tnis  volume  is  the  tirsL  of  a  series  described  in  a  prospectus 
originally  distributed  in  March,  1860.  Of  that  prospectus, 
the  annexed  is  a  reprint. 

A  SYSTEM  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 

Me.  Herbert  Spencer  proposes  to  issue  in  periodical  parts  a 
connected  series  of  works  which  he  has  for  several  years  been 
preparing.  Some  conception  of  the  general  aim  and  scope  of 
this  series  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  Programme. 

FIKST  PEIIS^CIPLES. 

Part  I.  The  Unknowable.— Carrying  a  step  further  the  doctrine 
put  into  shape  by  Hamilton  and  Mansel ;  pointing  out  the  various  direc- 
tions in  which  Science  leads  to  the  same  conclusions ;  and  showing 
that  in  this  united  behef  in  an  Absolute  that  transcends  not  only  human 
knowledge  but  human  conception,  lies  the  only  possible  reconcihation 
of  Science  and  Rehgion. 

Part  H.  Laws  of  the  Knowable. — A  statement  of  the  ultimate 
principles  discernible  throughout  aU  manifestations  of  the  Absolute — 
those  highest  generahzations  now  being  disclosed  by  Stience  which  are 
severally  true  not  of  one  class  of  phenomena  but  of  all  classes  of  pheno- 
mena J  and  which  are  thus  the  keys  to  all  classes  of  phenomena.* 

*  One  of  these  generalizations  is  that  currently  known  as  **  the  Conservation  ot 
Force ; "  a  second  may  be  gathered  from  a  published  essay  on  "  Progress  :  its  Law 
and  Cause ; "  a  third  is  indicated  in  a  paper  on  "  Transcendental  Physiology ; ' 
and  there  are  several  others. 


XIV  PREFACE. 

[ J»  logical  order  should  here  come  the  application  of  those  First  Fj  irn- 
pies  to  Inorganic  Nature.  But  this  great  division  it  is  proposed  to  pass 
over :  partly  because,  even  without  it,  the  scheme  is  too  extensive  ;  and 
partly  because  the  intejpretation  of  Organic  Nature  after  the  proposed 
method,  is  of  more  immediate  importance.  The  second  work  of  the  series 
will  therefore  be — ] 


THE  PEINCIPLES  OF  BIOLOGY. 
Vol.  I. 

Part  I.  The  Data  of  Biology. — Including  those  general  tniths  of 
Physics  and  Chemistry  with  which  rational  Biology  must  set  out. 

II.  The  Inductions  of  Biology. — A  statement  of  the  leading  gener- 
alizations  which  Naturalists,  Physiologists,  and  Comparative  Anatomista, 
have  established. 

III.  The  Evolution  of  Life.— Concerning  the  speculation  com- 
monly known  as  "  The  Development  Hypothesis  " — its  d  priori  and  A 
posteriori  evidences. 

Vol.  II. 

IV.  Morphological  Development. — Pointing  out  the  relations  that 
are  everywhere  traceable  between  organic  forms  and  the  average  of  the 
various  forces  to  which  they  are  subject ;  and  seeking  in  the  cumulative 
effects  of  such  forces  a  theory  of  the  forms. 

V.  Physiological  Development. — The  progressive  differentiation  of 
functions  similarly  traced ;  and  similarly  interpreted  as  consequent  upon 
the  exposure  of  different  parts  of  organisms  to  different  sets  of  conditions. 

VI.  The  Laws  of  Multiplication.— Generalizations  respecting  the 
rates  of  reproduction  of  the  various  classes  of  plants  and  animals ;  fol- 
lowed by  an  attempt  to  show  the  dependence  of  these  variations  upon 
certain  necessary  causes.* 

•  The  ideas  to  be  developed  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Principles  of  Biology 
the  -writer  has  already  briefly  expressed  in  sundry  lleview- Articles.  Part  IV. 
will  work  out  a  doctrine  suggested  in  a  paper  on  "  The  Laws  of  Organic  Form," 
published  in  the  Medico- Chirurgical  Review  for  January,  1859.  The  germ  of  Part 
V.  is  contained  in  the  essay  on  **  Transcendental  Physiology  :  "  See  Essays,  pp. 
280-90.  And  in  Part  VI.  will  be  unfolded  certain  views  crudely  expressed  in  » 
**  Theory  of  Population,"  published  iu  tlie  Westminster  Review  for  April  1852 


. PREFACE.  XV 

THE  PEINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOLOGT. 
Vol.  I. 

Part  I.  Tiie  Data  of  Psychology.— Treating  of  the  general  con- 
nexions  of  Mind  ani  Life  and  their  relations  to  other  modes  of  the 
Unknowable. 

II.  The  Inductions  of  Psychology.— A  digest  of  such  generaliza- 
tions  respecting  mental  phenomena  as  have  already  been  empmcally 
established. 

III.  General  Synthesis. — A  republication,  with  additional  chapters, 
of  the  same  part  in  the  already-published  Principles  of  Pstjclwhgy. 

IV.  Specl^l  Synthesis. — A  republication,  with  extensive  revisions 
and  additions,  of  the  same  part,  &c.  &c. 

V.  Physical  Synthesis. — An  attempt  to  show  the  manner  in  which 
the  succession  of  states  of  consciousness  conforms  to  a  certain  funda- 
mental law  of  nervous  action  that  follows  from  the  First  Principles  laid 
down  at  the  outset. 

YOL.    II. 

YI.  Specl\l  Analysis. — As  at  present  published,  but  further  elabor 
ated  by  some  additional  chapters. 

VII.  General  Analysis. — As  at  present  published,  with  several 
explanations  and  additions. 

VIII.  Corollaries. — Consisting  in  part  cf  a  number  of  derivative 
principles  which  form  a  necessary  introduction  to  Sociology.* 

THE  PEINCIPLES  OE  SOCIOLOGY. 

YOL.  I. 

Part  I.  The  Data  of  SoaoLOGY.— A  statement  of  the  several  sets 
of  factors  entering  into  social  phenomena — human  ideas  and  feelings 
considered  in  their  necessary  order  of  evolution ;  surrounding  natural 
conditions;  and  those  ever  compUcating  conditions  to  which  Society 
itself  gives  origin. 

11.  The  Inductions  of  Sociology.— General  facts,  structural  and 
functional,  as  gathered  from  a  survey  of  Societies  and  their  changes :  in 

*  Respecting  the  several  additions  to  be  made  to  the  PrincipUs  of  PsycJiologijy 
it  seems  needful  only  to  say  that  Part  V.  is  the  unwritten  division  named  in  the 
preface  to  that  work — a  division  of  which  the  germ  is  contained  in  a  note  on  page 
644,  and  of  which  the  scope  has  since  been  more  definitely  stated  in  a  paper  in 
the  Medico- Chirurgical  Review  for  Jan.  1859. 


XVl  PREPACTfi. 

other  words,  llie  empirical  generalizations  that  arc  arrived  at  by  com- 
paring different  societies,  and  successive  phases  of  the  same  society. 

III.  Political  Organization. — The  evolution  of  governments,  gene- 
ral and  local,  as  determined  by  natural  causes ;  their  several  types  and 
metamorphoses ;  their  increasing  complexity  and  specialization ;  and  the 
progressive  limitation  of  their  functions. 


Vol.  II. 

IV.  Ecclesiastical  Organization.— Tracing  the  differentiation  of 
religious  government  from  secular ;  its  successive  complications  and  the 
multiplication  of  sects ;  the  growth  and  continued  modification  of  re- 
ligious ideas,  as  caused  by  advancing  knowledge  and  changing  moral 
character ;  and  the  gradual  reconciliation  of  these  ideas  with  the  truths 
of  abstract  science. 

V.  Ceremonial  Organization.— The  natural  history  of  that  third 
kind  of  government  which,  having  a  common  root  with  the  others,  and 
slowly  becoming  separate  from  and  supplementary  to  them,  serves  to 
regulate  the  minor  actions  of  life. 

VI.  Industrial  Organization. — The  development  of  productive  and 
distributive  agencies,  considered,  like  the  foregoing,,  in  its  necessary 
causes :  comprehending  not  only  the  progressive  division  of  labour,  and 
the  increasing  complexity  of  each  industrial  agency,  but  also  the  suc- 
cessive forms  of  industrial  government  as  passing  through  like  phases 
with  political  government. 

Vol.  Ill, 

VII.  Lingual  Progress. — The  evolution  of  Languages  "regarded  ae 
a  i)sychological  pi-ocess  determined  by  social  conditions. 

VIII.  Intellectual  Progress. — Treated  from  the  same  point  of 
view :  including  the  growth  of  classifications  ;  the  evolution  of  science 
out  of  common  knowledge ;  the  advance  from  qualitive  to  quantative 
prevision,  from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite,  and  from  the  concrete  to 
the  abstract. 

IX.  ^Esthetic  Progress.  —  The  Fine  Arts  similarly  dealt  with: 
tracing  their  gradual  differentiation  from  primitive  institutions  and  from 
each  other;  their  increasing  varieties  of  development;  and  their  ad- 
vance in  reality  of  expression  and  superiority  of  aim. 

X.  Moral  Progrjess. — Exhibiting  the  genesis  of  the  slow  emotional 
modifications  which  human  nature  undergoes  in  its  a'daptation  to  the 
social  state. 


PREFACE.  XVU 

XI.  TiiE  Consensus. — Treating  of  the  necessary  interdependence  of 
Mtruclures  and  of  functions  in  each  type  of  society,  and  in  the  successive 
pliases  of  social  development.* 

THE  PEIXCIPLE3  OF  MOEALITY. 
YOL.  I. 

Part  I.  The  Data  of  Moil\lity.— Generalizations  furnished  by 
Biology,  Psychology  and  Sociology,  which  underlie  a  true  theory  oi 
right  living :  in  other  words,  the  elements  of  that  equihbrium  between 
constitution  and  conditions  of  existence,  which  is  at  once  the  moral 
ideal  and  the  limit  towards  which  we  are  progressing. 

II.  The  Inductions  of  Morality.— Those  empirically-established 
rules  of  human  action  which  are  registered  as  essential  laws  by  all 
civilized  nations :  that  is  to  say — the  generalizations  of  expediency. 

III.  Personal  Mok\l3. — The  principles  of  private  conduct — physical, 
intelleciual,  moral  and  religious — that  follow  from  the  conchtions  to 
complete  individual  life :  or,  what  is  the  same  thing — those  modes  of 
private  action  which  must  result  from  the  eventual  equiUbration  of  in- 
ternal desires  and  external  needs. 

Vol.  ir. 

IV.  Justice. — The  mutual  Hmitations  of  men's  actions  necessitated 
by  their  co-existence  as  units  of  a  society — limitations,  the  perfect 
observance  of  which  constitutes  that  state  of  equilibrium  forminor  the 
goal  of  political  progress. 

V.  Negative  Beneficence.— Those  secondary  limitations,  similarly 
necessitated,  which,  though  less  important  and  not  cognizable  by  law, 
are  yet  requisite  to  prevent  mutual  destruction  of  happiness  in  various 
mdirect  ways :  in  other  words— those  minor  self-restraints  dictated  by 
what  may  be  called  passive  sympathy. 

*  Of  this  treatise  on  Sociology  a  few  small  fragments  may  be  found  in  already- 
published  essays.  Some  of  the  ideas  to  be  developed  in  Part  II.  are  indicated  in 
an  article  on  "  The  Social  Organism,"  contained  in  the  last  number  of  the  West- 
minster Review  ;  those  which  Part  V.  will  work  out,  may  be  gathered  from  the 
first  half  of  a  paper  written  some  years  since  on  "Manners  and  Fashion  ; "  of  Part 
Vlir,  the  germs  are  contained  in  an  article  on  the  "  Genesis  of  Sclofice  ;"  two 
papers  on  "  The  Origin  and  Function  of  Music"  and  "  The  Philosophy  of  Style," 
contain  some  ideas  to  fb  embodied  in  Part  IX. ;  and  from  a  criticism  of  Mr.  Bain's 
work  on  '•  The  Emotions  and  the  Will,"  in  the  last  number  of  the  Medlco-Chirur- 
gical  Review,  the  central  idea  to  be  developed  in  Part  X.  may  be  inferred. 


XVni  niEFACB. 

VI.  Positive  Beneficence.— Comprehending  all  modes  of  conduct, 
dictated  by  active  sympathy,  which  imply  pleasure  in  giving  pleasure^ 
modes  of  conduct  that  social  adaptation  has  induced  and  must  render 
ever  more  general ;  and  which,  in  becoming  universal,  must  fill  to  the 
full  the  possible  measure  of  human  happiness.* 

In  anticipation  of  the  obvious  criticism  that  the  scheme  here 
sketched  out  is  too  extensive,  it  may  be  remarked  that  an  ex- 
haustive  treatment  of  each  topic  is  not  intended ;  but  simply  the 
establishment  oi principles ^  with  such  illustrations  as  are  needed 
to  make  their  bearings  fully  understood.  It  may  also  be  pointed 
out  that,  besides  minor  fragments,  one  large  division  {The  Princi- 
ples of  Fsi/cliology)  is  already,  in  great  part,  executed.  And  a 
further  reply  is,  that  impossible  though  it  may  prove  to  execute 
the  w^hole,  yet  nothing  can  be  said  against  an  attempt  to  set  forth 
the  rirst  Principles  and  to  carry  their  applications  as  far  as  cir. 
cumstances  permit. 

The  price  per  Number  to  be  half-a-crown  ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
four  Numbers  yearly  issued  to  he  severally  delivered,  post  free, 
to  all  annual  subscribers  of  Ten  Shillings. 

•  Part  IV.  of  the  Principles  of  Morality/ will  be  co-extensive  (though  not  iden- 
tical) with  the  first  half  of  the  writer's  Social  Statics. 


This  Programme  I  have  thonglit  well  to  reprint  for  two 
reasons: — the  one  being  that  readers  may,  from  time  to 
time,  be  able  to  ascertain  what  topics  are  next  to  be  dealt 
with ;  the  other  being  that  an  outline  of  the  scheme  may 
remain,  in  case  it  should  never  be  completed. 

The  successive  instalments  of  which  this  volume  consists, 
were  issued  to  the  subscribers  at  the  following  dates  : — Part 
I.  (pp,  1—80)  in  October,  1860  ;  Part  II.  (pp.  81—176)  in 
Januarv,  1861 ;  Part  III.  (pp.  177—256)  in  April,  1861 ; 
Part  IV.  (pp.  257—334)  in  October,  1861  ;  Part  V.  (pp. 
3,35_416)  in  March,  1862;  and  Part  YI.  (pp.  417—504) 
in  June-,  1862.* 

London,  June  6th,  18G2.  ^ 

•  These  dates  and  pagings  of  the  divisions  as  originally  issued,  of  courMO 
Jo  not  apply  to  the  volume  as  it  now  stands,  beyond  page  123. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I.— THE  UNKNOWABLE. 


CHAP. 

I. EELIGION   AND    SCIENCU 

11. ULTIMATE  EELIGIOUS  IDEAS 

ni.— -ULTIMATE  SCIENTIFIC  IDEAS 

IV. THE  RELATIVITY  OP  ALL  KNOWLEDGE 

V. THE  EECONCILIATION 


PAGE 
3 

25 
47 

68 
98 


PART  II.— THE  KNOWABLE. 

CHAP. 

I. PHILOSOPHY  DEFINED  

II. THE  DATA  OP  PHILOSOPFIY... 

III. — SPACE,,  TIMEj  MATTERj  MOTION,  AND  FORCE 

IV. THE  INDESTRUCTIBILITY  OP  MATTER  

V. — THE  CONTINUITY  OP  MOTION  

VI. — THE  PERSISTENCE  OP  FORCE  ...  ...  " 

VII. — THE  PERSISTENCE  OP  RELATIONS  AMONG  FORCES    . . 

VIII. THE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OP  FORCES 

IX. — THE  DIRECTION  OP  MOTION  ...  ... 

X. — THE  RHYTHM  OP  MOTION  .. . 

V^  XI. — RECAPITULATION^  CRITICISM,  AND  RECOMMENCEMENT 

^  XII. — EVOLUTION  AND  DISSOLUTION  ,. 


PAGE 

127 
135 

158 
172 
180 
185 
193 
197 
222 
250 
272 
278 


XX 


CONTENTS. 


XIII. SIMrLE  AND  COMPOUND  EVOLUTION 

XIV. THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION 

XV. THE  LAW  0¥  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED 

XVI. THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED 

XVII. THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED 

XVIII. THE  INTERPRETATION  OF    EVOLUTION 

XIX. THE  INSTABILITY  OP  THE  HOMOGENEOUS 

XX. THE  MULTIPLICATION  OP  EFFECTS 

XXl . SEGREGATION  

XXII. — EQUILIBRATION       

XXIII. ^DISSOLUTION  

XXIY. — SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 


287 

307 
329 
361 
381 
397 
401 
431 
459 
483 
518 
538 


PART   L 

THE   UNKNOWABLE, 


CHAPTER  I. 

RELIGION    AND    SCIENCE. 

'/  §  1.  "VYe  too  often  forget  that  not  only  is  there  "  a  soul  ci 
goodness  in  things  evil,"  but  very  generally  also,  a  soul  of 
truth  in  things  erroneous.  While  many  admit  the  abstract 
probability  that  a  falsity  has  usually  a  nucleus  of  reality,  few 
bear  this  abstract  probability  in  mind,  when  passing  judg- 
ment on  the  opinions  of  others.  A  belief  that  is  finally 
proved  to  be  grossly  at  variance  with  fact,  is  cast  aside  with 

"  indignation  or  contempt ;  and  in  the  heat  of  antagonism 
scarcely  any  one  inquires  what  there  was  in  this  belief  which 
commended  it  to  men's  minds.  Yet  there  must  have  been 
something.  And  there  is  reason  to  suspect  that  this  some- 
thing was  its  correspondence  with  certain  of  their  experiences : 
an  extremely  limited  or  vague  correspondence  perhaps ;  but 
still,  a  correspondence.  Even  the  absurdest  report  may  in 
nearly  every  instance  be  traced  to  an  actual  occurrence ;  and 
had  there  been  no  such  actual  occTirrence^  this  preposterous 
misrepresentation  of  it  would  never  have  existed.  Though 
the  distorted  or  magnified  image  transmitted  to  us  through 
the  refracting  mediimi  of  rumour,  is  utterly  unlike  the  reality ; 
yet  in  the  absence  of  the  reality  there  would  have  been  no 
distorted  or  magnified  image.  And  thus  it  is  with  human 
beliefs  in  general.  Entirely  wrong  as  they  may  appear,  the 
implication  is  that  they  germinated  out  of  actual  experiences 
— originally  contained,  and  perhaps  still  contain,  some  small 
amount  of  verity. 


RELiaiON  AND   SCIENCE. 

More  especially  may  we  safely  assume  tliis,  in  tlie  case  of 
beliefs  that  have  long  existed  and  are  widely  diffused ;  and 
most  of  all  so,  in  the  case  of  beliefs  that  are  perennial  and 
nearly  or  quite  imiversal.  The  presimiption  that  any  current 
opinion  is  not  wholly  false,  gains  in  strength  according  to  the 
number  of  its  adherents.  Admitting,  as  we  must,  that  life  is 
impossible  unless  through  a  certain  agreement  between  in- 
ternal convictions  and  external  circumstances  ;  admitting 
therefore  that  the  probabilities  are  always  in  favour  of  the 
truth,  or  at  least  the  partial  truth,  of  a  conviction ;  we  must 
admit  that  the  convictions  entertained  by  many  minds  in 
common  are  the  most  likely  to  have  some  foundation.  The 
elimination  of  individual  errors  of  thought,  must  give  to 
the  resulting  judgment  a  certain  additional  value.  It 
may  indeed  be  urged  that  many  widely-spread  beliefs 
are  received  on  authority ;  that  those  entertaining  them 
make  no  attempts  at  verification ;  and  hence  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  the  multitude  of  adlierents  adds  but  little  to  the 
probability  of  a  belief.  But  this  is  not  true.  For  a  belief 
which  gains  extensive  reception  without  critical  examination, 
is  thereby  proved  to  have  a  general  congruity  with  the  various 
other  beliefs  of  those  who  receive  it ;  and  in  so  far  as  these 
various  other  beliefs  are  based  upon  personal  observation  and 
judgment,  they  give  an  indirect  warrant  to  one  with  which 
they  harmonize.  It  may  be  that  this  warrant  is  of  small 
value ;  but  still  it  is  of  some  value. 

Could  we  reach  definite  views  on  this  matter,  they  would 
be  extremely  useful  to  us.  It  is  important  that  we  should,  if 
possible,  form  something  like  a  general  theory  of  current 
opinions ;  so  that  we  may  neither  over-estimate  nor  under- 
estimate their  worth.  Arriving  at  correct  judgments  on  dis- 
puted questions,  much  depends  on  the  attitude  of  mind  we 
preserve  while  listening  to,  or  taking  part  in,  the  controversy ; 
and  for  the  preservation  of  a  right  attitude,  it  is  needful  that 
we  should  learn  how  true,  and  yet  how  untrue,  are  average 
human  beliefs.     On  the  one  hand,  we  must  keep  free  from 


RELIGION    AND    SCIENCE.  0 

tliat  bias  in  favour  of  received  ideas  wHch  expresses  itself  in 
such  dogmas  as  "What  every  one  says  must  be  true,"  or 
"  Tbe  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God/'  On  tbe  other 
hand,  the  fact  disclosed  by  a  survey  of  the  past,  that  majorities 
have  usually  been  wrong,  must  not  blind  us  to  the  comple- 
mentary fact,  that  majorities  have  usually  not  been  entirely 
wrong.  And  the  avoidance  of  these  extremes  being  a  pre- 
requisite to  catholic  thinking,  we  shall  do  well  to  provide 
ourselves  with  a  safe-guard  against  them,  by  making  a  Valua- 
tion of  opinions  in  the  abstract.  To  this  end  we  must  con- 
template the  kind  of  relation  that  ordinarily  subsists  between 
opinions  and  facts.  Let  us  do  so  with  one  of  those  beliefs 
which  under  various  forms  has  prevailed  among  all  nations  in 
all  times. 

§  2.  The  earliest  traditions  represent  rulers  as  gods  or 
demigods.  By  their  subjects,  primitive  kings  were  regarded 
as  superhuman  in  origm,  and  superhuman  in  power.  They 
possessed  divine  titles ;  received  obeisances  like  those  made 
before  the  altars  of  deities ;  and  were  in  some  cases  actually 
worshipped.  If  there  needs  proof  that  the  divine  and  half- 
divine  characters  originally  ascribed  to  monarchs  were 
ascribed  literally,  we  have  it  in  the  fact  that  there  are  still 
existing  savage  races,  among  whom  it  is  held  that  the  chiefs 
and  their  kindred  are  of  celestial  origin,  or,  as  elsewhere,  tliat 
only  the  chiefs  have  souls.  And  of  course  along  with  beliefs 
of  this  kind,  there  existed  a  belief  in  the  unlimited  power  of 
the  ruler  over  his  subjects — an  absolute  possession  of  them, 
extending  even  to  the  taldng  of  their  lives  at  will :  as  even 
stiU  in  Fiji,  where  a  victim  stands  unbound  to  be  killed  at  the 
word  of  his  chief ;  himself  declaring,  "  whatever  the  king  say-" 
must  be  done." 

In  times  and  among  races  somewhat  less  barbarous,  wc  find 
these  beliefs  a  little  modified.  The  monarch,  instead  of  bein^ 
literally  thought  god  or  demigod,  is  conceived  to  be  a  man 
(laving  divine  authority,  with  perhaps  more  or  less  of  divine 


ti  REJ.IGION    AND   SCIENCE. 

nature.  He  retains  however,  as  in  the  East  to  the  present 
day,  titles  expressing  his  heavenly  descent  or  relationships  ; 
and  is  still  saluted  in  forms  and  words  as  humble  as  those  ad- 
dressed to  the  Deity.  "While  the  lives  and  properties  of  his 
l)eople,  if  not  practically  so  completely  at  his  mercy,  are  still 
in  theory  supposed  to  be  his. 

Later  in  the  progress  of  civilization,  as  during  the  middle 
ages  in  Europe,  the  current  opinions  respecting  the  relation- 
ship of  rulers  and  ruled  are  further  changed.  For  the  theory 
of  divine  origin,  there  is  substituted  that  of  divine  right.  No 
longer  god  or  demigod,  or  even  god-descended,  the  king  is 
now  regarded  as  simply  God^s  vice-gerent.  The  obeisances 
made  to  him  are  not  so  extreme  in  their  humility ;  and  his 
sacred  titles  lose  much  of  their  meaning.  Moreover  his 
authority  ceases  to  bo  unlimited.  Subjects  deny  his  right  to 
dispose  at  will  of  their  lives  and  properties ;  and  jdeld  alle- 
giance only  in  the  shape  of  obedience  to  his  commands. 

With  advancing  political  opinion  has  come  still  greater 
restriction  of  imperial  power.  Belief  in  the  supernatural 
character  of  the  ruler,  long  ago  repudiated  by  ourselves  for 
example,  has  left  behind  it  nothing  more  than  the  popular 
tendency  to  ascribe  unusual  goodness,  wisdom,  and  beauty  to 
the  monarch.  Loyalty,  which  originally  meant  implicit  sub- 
mission to  the  king's  will,  now  means  a  merely  nominal  pro- 
fession of  subordination,  and  the  fulfilment  of  certain  forms  of 
respect.  Our  political  practice,  and  our  political  theory,  alike 
utterly  reject  those  regal  prerogatives  which  once  passed  im- 
questioned.  By  deposing  some,  and  putting  others  in  their 
places,  we  have  not  only  denied  the  divine  rights  of  certain 
men  to  rule ;  but  we  have  denied  that  they  have  any  rights 
beyond  those  originating  in  the  assent  of  the  nation.  Though 
our  forms  of  speech  and  our  state-documents  still  assert  the 
subjection  of  the  citizens  to  the  riiler,  our  actual  beliefs  and 
our  daily  proceedings  implicitly  assert  the  contrary.  "VVe 
obey  no  laws  save  those  of  our  own  making.  We  have  entirely 
divested  the  monarch  of  legislative  power;  and  should  iiu- 


RELIGION    AND    SCIENCE.  J 

mediately  rebel  against  his  or  her  exercise  of  such  power, 
even  in  matters  of  the  smallest  concern.  In  brief,  the  abo- 
riginal doctrine  is  all  but  extinct  among  us. 

Nor  has  the  rejection  of  primitive  political  beliefs,  resulted 
only  in  transferring  the  authority  of  an  autocrat  to  a  repre- 
sentative body.  The  views  entertained  respecting  govern- 
ments in  general,  of  whatever  form,  are  now  widely  different 
from  those  once  entertained.  Whether  popular  or  despotic, 
governments  were  in  ancient  times  supposed  to  have  unlimited 
authority  over  their  subjects.  Individuals  existed  for  the 
benefit  of  the  State ;  not  the  State  for  the  benefit  of  in- 
dividuals. In  our  days,  however,  not  only  has  the  national  will 
been  in  many  cases  substituted  for  the  "will  of  the  king  ;  but 
the  exercise  of  this  national  will  has  been  restricted  to  a  much 
smaller  sphere.  In  England,  for  instance,  though  there  has 
been  established  no  definite  theory  setting  bounds  to  govern- 
mental authority  ;  yet,  in  practice,  sundry  bounds  have  been 
set  to  it  which  are  tacitly  recognized  by  all.  There  is  no 
organic  law  formally  declaring  that  the  legislature  may  not 
freely  dispose  of  the  citizens'  lives,  as  early  kings  did  when 
they  sacrificed  hecatombs  of  victims ;  but  were  it  possible  for 
our  legislature  to  attempt  such  a  thing,  its  own  destruction 
would  be  the  consequence,  rather  than  the  destruction  of 
citizens.  How  entirely  we  have  established  the  personal 
liberties  of  the  subject  against  the  invasions  of  State-power, 
would  be  quickly  demonstrated,  were  it  proposed  by  Act  of 
Parliament  forcibly  to  take  possession  of  the  nation,  or  of  any 
class,  and  turn  its  services  to  public  ends  ;  as  the  ser\T[ces  of 
the  people  were  turned  by  primitive  rulers.  And  should  any 
statesman  suggest  a  re- distribution  of  property  such  as  was 
sometimes  made  in  ancient  democratic  communities,  he  would 
be  met  by  a  thousand-tongued  denial  of  imperial  power  over 
individual  possessions.  Not  only  in  our  day  have  these  funda- 
mental claims  of  the  citizen  been  thus  made  good  against  the 
State,  but  simdry  minor  claims  likewise.  Ages  ago,  laws 
regulating  dress  and  mode   of  living  fell  into    disuse;  and 


8  RELIGION   AND   SCIENCE, 

any  attempt  to  revive  tliem  would  prove  the  current  opinion 
to  be,  tliat  sucli  matters  lie  beyond  tbe  sphere  of  legal  control. 
For  some  centuries  we  have  been  asserting  in  practice,  and 
have  now  established  in  theory,  the  right  of  every  man  to 
choose  his  osvn  religious  beliefs,  instead  of  receiving  such 
beliefs  on  State-authority.  Within  the  last  few  generations 
we  have  inaugurated  complete  liberty  of  speech,  in  spite  of  all 
legislative  attempts  to  suppress  or  limit  it.  And  still  more 
recently  we  have  claimed  and  finally  obtained  under  a  few 
exceptional  restrictions,  freedom  to  trade  with  whomsoever  we 
please.  Thus  our  political  beKefs  are  widely  different  from 
ancient  ones,  not  only  as  to  the  proper  depositary  of  power  to 
be  exercised  over  a  nation,  but  also  as  to  the  extent  of  that 
power. 

Not  even  here  has  the  change  ended.  Besides  the  average 
opinions  which  we  have  just  described  as  current  among 
ourselves,  there  exists  a  less  widely-diffused  opinion  going 
still  further  in  the  same  direction.  There  are  to  be  foimd 
men  who  contend  that  ^the  sphere  of  government  should  bo 
narrowed  even  more  than  it  is  in  England.  The  modern 
doctrine  that  the  State  exists  for  the  benefit  of  citizens,  which 
has  now  in  a  great  measure  supplanted  the  ancient  doctrine 
that  the  citizens  exist  for  the  benefit  of  the  State,  they  would 
push  to  its  logical  results.  They  hold  that  the  freedom  of  the 
individual,  limited  only  by  the  like  freedom  of  other  individ- 
uals, is  sacred  ;  and  that  the  legislature  cannot  equitably  put 
further  restrictions  upon  it,  either  by  forbidding  any  actions 
which  the  law  of  equal  freedom  permits,  or  taking  away  any 
property  save  that  required  to  pay  the  cost  of  enforcing  this 
law  itself.  They  assert  that  the  sole  function  of  the  State  is 
the  protection  of  persons  against  each  other,  and  against  a 
foreign  foe.  They  urge  that  as,  throughout  civilization,  the 
manifest  tendency  has  been  continually  to  extend  the  liberties 
of  the  fubject,  and  restrict  the  functions  of  the  State,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  ultimate  political  condition  must  bo 
one  in  which  personal  freedom  is  the  greatest  possible  and 


RELIGION    AKD   SCIENCE.  9 

govemmental  power  tlie  least  possible :  that,  namely,  in  wliich 
the  freedom  of  each  has  no  limit  but  the  like  freedom  of  all ; 
while  the  sole  governmental  duty  is  the  maintenance  of  this 
limit. 

Here  then  in  different  times  and  places  we  find  concerning 
the  origin,  authority,  and  functions  of  government,  a  great 
variety  of  opinions — opinions  of  which  the  leading  genera 
above  indicated  subdivide  into  countless  species.  "What  now 
must  be  said  about  the  truth  or  falsity  of  these  opinions? 
Save  among  a  few  barbarous  tribes  the  notion  that  a  monarch 
is  a  god  or  demigod  is  regarded  throughout  the  world  as  an 
absurdity  almost  passing  the  bounds  of  human  credulity. 
In  but  few  places  does  there  survive  a  vague  notion  that  the 
ruler  possesses  any  supernatural  attributes.  Most  civilized 
communities,  which  stiU  admit  the  di\^ne  right  of  govern- 
ments, have  long  since  repudiated  the  divine  right  of  kings. 
Elsewhere  the  belief  that  there  is  anything  sacred  in  legis- 
lative regulations  is  dying  out :  laws  are  coming  to  be  con- 
sidered as  conventional  only.  "VYhile  the  extreme  school 
holds  that  governments  have  neither  intrinsic  author- 
ity, nor  can  have  authority  given  to  them  by  convention; 
but  can  possess  authority  only  as  the  administrators  of  those 
moral  principles  deducible  from  the  conditions  essential  to 
social  life.  Of  these^  various  beliefs,  wdth  their  innumerable 
modifications,  must  we  then  say  that  some  one  alone  is 
wholly  right  and  all  the  rest  wholly  wrong ;  or  must  we  say 
that  each  of  them  contains  truth  more  or  less  completely 
disguised  by  errors  ?  The  latter  alternative  is  the  one  which 
analysis  will  force  upon  us.  Ridiculous  as  they  may  severally 
appear  to  those  not  educated  imder  them,  every  one  of  these 
doctrines  has  for  its  vital  element  the  recognition  of  an 
unquestionable  fact.  Directly  or  by  implication,  each  of 
them  insists  on  a  certain  subordination  of  individual  actions 
to  social  requirements.  There  are  wide  differences  as  to  the 
power  to  which  this  subordination  is  due;  there  are  wide 
differences  as  to  the  motive  for  this  subordination ;  there  are 


10  RELIGION    AND   SCIENCE. 

wide  differences  as  to  its  extent ;  but  that  there  must  be  some 
subordination  all  are  agreed.  From  the  oldest  and  rudest 
idea  of  allegiance,  down  to  tlie  most  advanced  political  theory 
of  our  own  day,  there  is  on  this  point  complete  unanimity. 
Though,  between  the  savage  who  conceives  his  life  and 
property  to  be  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  his  chief,  and  the 
anarchist  who  denies  the  right  of  any  government,  autocratic 
or  democratic,  to  trench  upon  his  individual  freedom,  there 
seems  at  first  sight  an  entire  and  irreconcileable  antagonism  ; 
yet  ultimate  analysis  discloses  in  them  this  fundamental  com- 
munity of  opinion ;  that  there  are  limits  which  individual 
actions  may  not  transgress — limits  which  the  one  regards  as 
originating  in  the  king's  will,  and  which  the  other  regards  as 
deducible  from  the  equal  claims  of  fellow-citizens. 

It  may  perhaps  at  first  sight  seem  that  we  here  reach  a 
very  unimportant  conclusion  j  namely,  that  a  certain  tacit 
assumption  is  equally  implied  in  all  these  conflicting  political 
creeds —  an  assumption  which  is  indeed  of  self-evident 
validity.  The  question,  however,  is  not  the  value  or  novelty 
I  of  the  particular  truth  in  this  case  arrived  at.  My  aim  has 
been  to  exhibit  the  more  general  truth,  which  we  are  apt  to 
overlook,  that  between  the  most  opposite  beliefs  there  is 
usually  something  in  common, — something  taken  for  granted 
by  each ;  and  that  this  something,  if  not  to  be  set  down 
as  an  unquestionable  verity,  may  yet  be  considered  to 
have  the  highest  degree  of  probabiKty.  A  postulate  which, 
like  the  one  above  instanced,  is  not  consciously  asserted  but 
unconsciously  involved ;  and  which  is  unconsciously  involved 
not  by  one  man  or  body  of  men,  but  by  numerous  bodies  of 
men  who  diverge  in  coimtless  ways  and  degrees  in  the  rest  of 
their  beliefs  ;  has  a  warrant  far  transcending  any  that  can  be 
usually  shown.  And  when,  as  in  this  case,  the  postulate  is 
[abstract  —  is  not  based  on  some  one  concrete  experience 
common  to  all  mankind,  but  implies  an  induction  from  a 
great  variety  of  experiences,  we  may  say  that  it  ranks  next  in 
certainty  to  the  postulates  of  exact  science. 


RELIGION    AND   SCIENCE.  H 

I   >^  Do  we  not  thus  arrive  at  a  generalization  whicli  may  habit- 

Q  ually  guide  us  when  seeking  for  the  soul  of  truth  in  things 
\rroneous  ?  While  the  foregoing  illustration  brings  clearly 
home  the  fact,  that  in  opinions  seeming  to  be  absolutely  and 
supremely  wrong  something  right  is  yet  to  be  found ;  it  also 
indicates  the  method  we  should  pursue  in  seeking  the  some- 
thing right.     This  method  is  to  compare  all  opinions  of  the 

f  same  genus;  to  set  aside  as  more  or  less  discrediting  one 
another  those  various  special  and  concrete  elements  in  which 
such  opinions  disagree ;  to  observe  what  remains  after  the 
discordant  constituents  have  been  eliminated;  and  to  find 
for  this  remaining  constituent  that  abstract  expression  which 

V    holds  true  throughout  its  divergent  modifications. 

§  3.  A  candid  acceptance  of  this  general  principle  and  an 
adoption  of  the  course  it  indicates,  will  greatly  aid  us  in  deal- 
ing with  those  chronic  antagonisms  by  which  men  are 
divided.  Appl3dng  it  not  only  to  current  ideas  with  whicli 
we  are  personally  unconcerned,  but  also  to  our  own  ideas  and 
those  of  our  opponents,  we  shall  be  led  to  fomi  far  more 
correct  judgments.  We  shall  be  ever  ready  to  suspect  that 
the  convictions  we  entertain  are  not  wholly  right,  and  that 
the  adverse  convictions  are  not  wholly  wrong.  On  the  one 
hand  we  shall  not,  in  common  with  the  great  mass  of  the 
unthinking,  let  our  beKefs  be  determined  by  the  mere  accident 
of  birth  in  a  particular  age  on  a  particular  part  of  the  Earth's 
surface ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  we  shall  be  saved  from  thjit 
error  of  entire  and  contemptuous  negation,  which  is  f  dlen 
into  by  most  who  take  up  an  attitude  of  independent  criti(rlsm. 
Of  all  antagonisms  of  belief,  the  oldest,  the  widest,  the  niosi 
iprofound  and  the  most  important,  is  that  between  Religion 
fland  Science.  It  commenced  when  the  recognition  of  the 
simplest  uniformities  in  surrounding  things,  set  a  limit  to 
the  once  universal  superstition.  It  shows  itself  everywhere 
throughout  the  domain  of  human  knowledge:  affecting  men's 
interpretations  alike  of  the  simplest  mechanical  accidents  and 


12  RELIGION   AND   SCIENCE. 

of  tlie  most  complicated  events  in  tlie  histories  of  nations. 
It  lias  its  roots  deep  do^vn  in  the  diverse  habits  of  thoug^ht  of 
different  orders  of  minds.  And  the  conflicting  conceptions  of 
nature  and  life  which  these  diverse  habits  of  thought  severally 
generate,  influence  for  good  or  ill  the  tone  of  feeling  and  the 
daily  conduct. 

An  uiiceasing  battle  of  opinion  like  this  which  has  been 
carried  on  throughout  all  ages  under  the  banners  of  Religion 
and  Science,  has  of  course  generated  an  animosity  fatal  to  a 
just  estimate  of  either  party  by  the  other.  On.  a  larger  scale, 
and  more  intensely  than  any  other  controversy,  has  it  illus- 
trated that  perennially  significant  fable  concerning  the  knights 
who  fought  about  the  colour  of  a  shield  of  which  neither 
looked  at  more  than  one  face.  Each  combatant  seeing  clearly 
his  own  aspect  of  the  question,  has  charged  his  opponent 
with  stupidity  or  dishonesty  in  not  seeing  the  same  aspect  of 
it;  while  each  has  wanted  the  candour  to  go  over  to  his 
opponent's  side  and  find  out  how  it  was  that  he  saw  every- 
thing so  differently. 

Happily  the  times  display  an  increasing  cathoKcity  of  feel- 
ing, which  we  shall  do  well  in  carrying  as  far  as  our  natures 
permit.  In  proportion  as  we  love  truth  more  and  victory 
less,  we  shall  become  anxious  to  know  what  it  is  which  leadb 
our  opponents  to  think  as  they  do.  "VVe  shall  begin  to  suspect 
that  the  pertinacity  of  belief  exhibited  by  them  must  result 
from  a  perception  of  something  we  have  not  perceived.  And 
we  shall  aim  to  supplement  the  portion  of  truth  we  have 
found  with  the  portion  found  by  them.  Making  a  more 
rational  estimate  of  human  authority,  we  shall  avoid  alike  the 
extremes  of  undue  submission  and  undue  rebellion — shall  not 
regard  some  men's  judgments  as  wholly  good  and  others  as 
wholly  bad ;  but  shall  rather  lean  to  the  more  defensible 
position  that  none  are  completely  right  and  none  are  com- 
pletely wrong. 

Preserving,  as  far  as  may  be,  this  impartial  attitude,  let  us 
then  contemplate   the  two  sides  of  this  great  controversy. 


RKMOTON    AND   SCIENCE. 


13 


Keeping  guard  against  the  bias  of  education  and  shutting  out 
the  whisperings  of  sectarian  feeling,  let  us  consider  what  are 
the  a  priori  probabilities  in  favour  of  each  party* 

§  4.  When  duly  reaKzed,  the  general  principle  above 
illustrated  must  lead  us  to  anticipate  that  the  diverse  forms 
^f  religious  belief  which  have  existed  and  which  still  exist, 
lave  all  a  basis  in  some  ultimate  fact.  Judging  by  analogy, 
the  implication  is,  not  that  any  one  of  them  is  altogether 
right ;  but  that  in  each  there  is  something  right  more  or  less 
disguised  by  other  things  wrong.  It  may  be  that  the  soul  of 
truth  contained  in  erroneous  creeds  is  very  unlike  most,  if  not 
all,  of  its  several  embodiments  ;  and  indeed,  if,  as  we  have  good 
reason  to  expect,  it  is  much  more  abstract  than  any  of  them, 
its  unlikeness  necessarily  follows.  But  however  different 
from  its  concrete  expressions,  some  essential  verity  must  be 
looked  for.  To  suppose  that  these  multiform  conceptions 
should  be  one  and  all  absolutely  groundless,  discredits  too 
profoundly  that  average  human,  intelligence  from  which  all 
our  individual  intelligences  are  inherited. 

This  most  general  reason,  we  shall  find  enforced  by  other 
more  special  ones.  To  the  presumption  that  a  number  of 
diverse  beliefs  of  the  same  class  have  some  common  founda- 
tion in  fact,  must  in  this  case  be  added  a  further  presumption 
derived  from  the  omnipresence  of  the  beliefs.  Beligious  ideas 
of  one  kind  or  other  are  almost  universal.  Admitting  that 
m^many  places  there  are^trlFes  who  have  no  theory  of  crea- 
tion, no  word  for  a  deity,  no  propitiatory  acts,  no  idea  of  an- 
other life — admitting  that  only  when  a  certain  phase  of  intel- 
ligence is  reached  do  the  most  rudimentary  of  such  theories 
make  their  appearance;  the  implication  is  practically  the 
same.  Grant  that  among  all  races  who  have  passed  a 
certain  stage  of  intellectual  development  there  are  found 
vague  notions  concerning  the  origin  and  hidden  na- 
ture of  surroundinsj  thino^s ;  and  there  arises  the  infer- 
ence  that  such  notions  are  necessary  products  of  pro- 
gressing intelligence.      Their   endless    variety   serves    but 


14  RELIGION   AND   SCIENCE. 

to  strengtheii  this  conclusion  :  showing  as  it  does  a  more  or 
less  independent  genesis — showing  how,  in  different  places 
and  times,  like  conditions  have  led  to  similar  trains  of 
thought,  ending  in  analogous  results.  That  these  countless 
different,  and  yet  allied,  phenomena  presented  by  all  religions 
are  accidental  or  factitious,  is  an  untenable  supposition.  A 
candid  examination  of  the  evidence  quite  negatives  the  doc- 
trine maintained  by  some,  that  creeds  are  priestly  inventions. 
Even  as  a  mere  question  of  probabilities  it  cannot  rationally 
be  concluded  that  in  every  society,  past  and  present,  savage 
and  civilized,  certain  members  of  the  community  have  com- 
bined to  9.elude  the  rest,  in  ways  so  analogous.  To  any  who 
may  allege  that  some  primitive  fiction  was  devised  by  some 
primitive  priesthood,  before  yet  mankind  had  diverged  from 
a  common  centre,  a  reply  is  furnished  by  philology ;  for 
philology  proves  the  dispersion  of  mankind  to  have  com- 
menced before  there  existed  a  language  sufficiently  organized 
to  express  religious  ideas.  Moreover,  were  it  otherwise  tenable, 
the  hypothesis  of  artificial  origin  fails  to  account  for  the  facts. 
It  does  not  explain  why,  under  all  changes  of  form^  certain 
elements  of  religious  belief  remain  constant.  It  does  not 
show  us  how  it  happens  that  while  adverse  criticism  has  from 
age  to  age  gone  on  destroying  particular  theological  dogmas, 
it  has  not  destroyed  the  fundament&l  conception  underlying 
these  dogmas.  It  leaves  us  without  any  solution  of  the  strik- 
ing  circumstance  that  when,  from  the  absurdities  and  cor- 
ruptions accumulated  around  them,  national  creeds  have 
fallen  into  general  discredit,  ending  in  indifferentism  or 
positive  denial,  there  has  always  by  and  by  arisen  a  re-asser- 
tion of  them :  if  not  the  same  in  form,  stiU  the  same  in 
essence.  Thus  the  universality  of  religious  ideas,  their  in- 
dependent evolution  among  different  primitive  races,  and 
their  great  vitality,  unite  in  showing  that  their  source  must 
be  deep-seated  instead  of  superficial.  In  other  words,  we 
are  obliged  to  admit  that  if  not  supcmaturaUy  derived  as 


RELIGION   AND   SCIENCE.  15 

"tlie  majority  contend,  tbey  must  be  derived  out  of  human 
experiences,  slowly  accumulated  and  organized. 

Should  it  be  asserted  that  religious  ideas  are  products  of 
tlie  reUgious  sentiment,  wliicb,  to  satisfy  itself,  prompts 
imaginations  that  it  afterwards  projects  into  the  external 
world,  and  by  and  by  mistakes  for  realities ;  the  problem  is 
not  solved,  but  only  removed  further  back.  'V^Tiether  the 
wish  is  father  to  the  thought,  or  whether  sentiment  and  idoe 
have  a  common  genesis,  there  equally  arises  the  question — 
^Vhence  comes  the  sentiment?  That  it  is  a  constituent  in 
man's  nature  is  implied  by  the  hj^othesis ;  and  cannot  in- 
deed be  denied  by  those  who  prefer  other  hj^otheses.  And 
if  the  religious  sentiment,  displayed  habitually  by  the  majority 
of  mankind,  and  occasionally  aroused  even  in  those  seemingly 
devoid  of  it,  must  be  classed  among  human  emotions,  we 
cannot  rationally  ignore  it.  We  are  bound  to  ask  its  origin 
and  its  function.  Here  is  an  attribute  which,  to  say  the  least, 
has  had  an  enormous  influence — ^which  has  played  a  con- 
spicuous part  throughout  the  entire  past  as  far  back  as 
history  records,  and  is  at  present  the  life  of  numerous  insti- 
tutions, the  stimulus  to  perpetual  controversies,  and  the 
prompter  of  countless  daily  actions.  Any  Theory  of  Tilings 
"which  takes  no  account  of  this  attribute,  must,  then,  be  ex- 
tremely defective.  If  >vith  no  other  view,  still  as  a  question 
ill  philosophy,  we  are  called  on  to  say  what  this  attribute 
means ;  and  we  cannot  decline  the  task  -without  confessing 
our  philosophy  to  be  incompetent. 

/  Two  suppositions  only  are  open  to  us :  the  one  that  the 

^  feeling  which  responds  to  religious  ideas  resulted,  along  witli 

.  all  other  human  faculties,  from  an  act  of  special  creation  ;  the 

other  that  it,  in  common  with  the  rest,  arose  by  a  process  of 

'Evolution.     If  we  adopt  the  first  of  these  alternatives,  imi- 

versally    accepted   by  our  ancestors   and  by  the  immense 

majority  of  our  contemporaries,  the  matter  is  at  once  settled  : 

man  is  directly  endowed  with  the  religious  feeling  by  a 


16  RELIGION   AND   SCIEKCE. 

creator;  and  to  that  creator  it  designedly  responds.  If  we" 
adopt  the  second  alternative,  then  we  are  met  by  the  questions 
— What  are  the  circumstances  to  which  the  genesis  of  the  re- 
ligious feeling  is  due  ?  and — "What  is  its  office  ?  We  are  bound 
to  entertain  these  questions ;  and  we  are  bound  to  find 
answers  to  them.  Considering  all  faculties,  as  we  must  on 
this  supposition,  to  result  from  accumulated  modifications 
caused  by  the  intercourse  of  the  organism  with  its  environ- 
ment, we  are  obliged  to  admit  that  there  exist  in  the  environ- 
ment certain  phenomena  or  conditions  which  have  determined 
the  growth  of  the  feeling  in  question ;  and  so  are  obliged  to 
admit  that  it  is  as  normal  as  any  other  faculty.  Add  to 
which  that  as,  on  the  hypothesis  of  a  development  of  lower 
forms  into  higher,  the  end  towards  which  the  progressive 
changes  directly  or  indirectly  tend,  must  be  adaptation  to 
the  requirements  of  existence;  we  are  also  forced  to  infer 
that  this  feeling  is  in  some  way  conducive  to  human  welfare. 
Thus  both  alternatives  contain  the  same  ultimate  implication. 
W^e  must  conclude  that  the  religious  sentiment  is  either  di- 
rectly created,  or  is  created  by  the  slow  action  of  natural 
causes  ;  and  whichever  of  these  conclusions  we  adopt,  requires 
us  to  treat  the  religious  sentiment  with  respect. 

One  other  consideration  should  not  be  overlooked — a  con- 
sideration which  students  of  Science  more  especially  need  to 
have  pointed  out.  Occupied  as  such  are  with  established  truths, 
and  accustomed  to  regard  things  not  already  known  as  things 
to  be  hereafter  discovered,  they  are  liable  to  forget  that  in- 
formation, however  extensive  it  may  become,  can  never  satisfy 
inquiry.  Positive  knowledge  does  not,  and  never  can,  fill 
the  whole  region  of  possible  thought.  At  tlie  uttermost 
reach  of  discovery  there  arises,  and  must  ever  arise,  the  ques- 
tion— What  lies  beyond  ?  As  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  a 
limit  to  space  so  as  to  exclude  the  idea  of  space  lying  outside 
that  limit ;  so  we  cannot  conceive  of  any  explanation  profound 
enough  to  exclude  the  question — ^What  is  the  explanation  of 
that  explanation  ?     Regarding  Science  as  a  gradually  increas- 


RELIGION    AND    SCIENCE.  17 

ing  spliere,  we  may  say  that  every  addition  to  its  sui'face 
does  but  bring  it  into  wider  contact  with  surrounding  nescience. 
There  must  ever  remain  therefore  two  antithetical  modes  of 
mental  action.  Throughout  aU  future  time,  as  now,  the 
human  mind  may  occupy  itself,  not  only  with  ascertained 
phenomena  and  their  relations,  but  also  with  that  im- 
ascertaiued  something  which  phenomena  and  their  rela- 
tions imply.  Hence  if  knowledge  cannot  monopolize 
consciousness — if  it  must  always  continue  possible  for  the 
mind  to  dwell  upon  that  w^hich  transcends  knowledge ;  then 
there  can  never  cease  to  be  a  place  for  something  of  the 
nature  of  Religion  ;  since  Religion  under  aU  its  forms  is  dis- 
tinguished from  everything  else  in  this,  that  its  subject 
matter  is  that  which  passes  the  sphere  of  experience. 

Thus,  however  untenable  may  be  any  or  all  the  existing 
religi(xi^  creeds,  however  gross  the  absui'dities  associated  with 
them,  however  irrational  the  arguments  set  forth  in  their  de- 
fence, we  must  not  ignore  the  verity  which  in  all  likelihood 
lies  hidden  within  them.  The  general  probability  that  widely- 
spread  beliefs  are  not  absolutely  baseless,  is  in  this  case  en- 
forced by  a  further  probability  due  to  the  omnipresence  of 
the  beliefs.  In  the  existence  of  a  religious  sentiment,  what- 
ever be  its  origin,  we  have  a  second  evidence  of  great  signifi- 
cance. And  as  in  that  nescience  which  must  ever  remain  the 
antithesis  to  science,  there  is  a  sphere  for  the  exercise  of  this 
sentiment,  we  find  a  third  general  fact  of  like  implication. 
J\ye  may  be  sure  therefore  that  religions,  though  even  none 
!f)f  them  be  actually  true,  are  yet  all  adumbrations  of  a  truth. 

§  5.  As,  to  the  religious,  it  will  seem  absurd  to  set  forth 
any  justification  for  Religion  ;  so,  to  the  scientific,  wiU  it  seem 
absurd  to  defend  Science.  Yet  to  do  the  last  is  certainly  aa 
needful  as  to  do  the  first.  If  there  exists  a  class  who,,  in 
contempt  of  its  follies  and  disgust  at  its  corruptions,  have 
contracted  towards  Religion  a  repugnance  which  makes  them 
overlook  the  fundamental  verity  contained  in  it ;   so,  too,  is 


\l 


]\ 


18  RELIGION    AND   SCIENCE. 

there  a  class  offended  to  such  a  degree  by  tlic  destructive 
criticisms  men  of  science  make  on  the  religious  tenets  they 
regard  as  essential,  that  they  have  acquired  a  strong  prejudice 
against  Science  in  general.  They  are  not  prepared  with  any 
avowed  reasons  for  their  dislike.  They  have  simply  a  re- 
membrance of  the  rude  shakes  which  Science  has  given  to 
many  of  their  cherished  convictions,  and  a  suspicion  that  it 
may  perhaps  eventually  uproot  all  they  regard  as  sacred ;  and 
hence  it  produces  in  them  a  certain  inarticulate  dread. 

What  is  Science  ?  To  see  the  absurdity  of  the  prejudice 
against  it,  we  need  only  remark  that  Science,  is  simply  a 
higher  development  of  common  knowledge  ;  and  that  if 
Science  is  repudiated,  all  knowledge  must  be  repudiated 
along  with  it.  The  extremest  bigot  will  not  suspect  any 
harm  in  the  observation  that  the  sun  rises  earlier  and  sets 
later  in  the  summer  than  in  the  winter;  but  will  .rather 
consider  such  an  observation  as  a  useful  aid  in  fulfilling  the 
duties  of  life.  Well,  Astronomy  is  an  organized  body  of 
similar  observations,  made  with  greater  nicety,  extended  to  a 
larger  number  of  objects,  and  so  analyzed  as  to  disclose  the 
real  arrangements  of  the  heavens,  and  to  dispel  our  false  con- 
ceptions of  them.  That  iron  will  rust  in  water,  that  wood 
will  burn,  that  long  kept  viands  become  putrid,  the  most 
timid  sectarian  wiU  teach  without  alarm,  as  tilings  useful  to 
be  known.  But  these  are  chemical  truths :  Chemistry  is  a 
systematized  collection  of  such  facts,  ascertained  with  pre- 
cision, and  so  classified  and  generalized  as  to  enable  us  to  say 
with  certainty,  concerning  each  simple  or  compound  substance, 
what  change  will  occur  in  it  under  given  conditions.  And 
thus  is  it  with  all  the  sciences.  They  severally  germinate 
out  of  tlie  experiences  of  daily  life ;  insensibly  as  they  grow 
they  draw  in  remoter,  more  numerous,  and  more  complex 
experiences ;  and  among  these,  they  ascertain  laws  of  de- 
pendence like  those  which  make  up  our  knowledge  of  the 
most  familiar  objects.  Nowhere  is  it  possible  to  draw  a  lino 
and  say — here  Science  begins.     And  as  it  is  the  function  of 


KEX.IG10N    an:     SC3EXC3.  U* 

common  observation  to  serve  for  the  guidance  of  conduct ;  so, 
too,  is  the  guidance  of  conduct  the  office  of  the  most  recondite 
and  abstract  inquiries  of  Science.  Through  the  countless  in- 
dustrial processes  and  the  various  modes  of  locomotion  which 
it  has  given  to  us,  Physics  regulates  more  completely  our  social 
life  than  does  his  acquaintance  ydth  the  properties  of  sur- 
rounding bodies  regulate  the  Kfe  of  the  savage.  Anatomy 
and  Physiology,  through  their  effects  on  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine and  hygiene,  modify  our  actions  almost  as  much  as  does 
our  acquaintance  with  the  evils  and  benefits  which  common 
environing  agencies  may  produce  on  our  bodies.  All  Science 
is  prevision  ;  and  all  Revision  ultimately  aids  us  in  greater  or 
less  degree  to  achieve  the  good  and  avoid  the  bad.  As 
certainly  as  the  perception  of  an  object  lying  in  our  path 
warns  us  against  stumbling  over  it ;  so  certainly  do  those 
more  complicated  and  subtle  perceptions  which  constitute 
Science,  warn  us  against  stumbling  over  intervening  obstacles 
in  the  pursuit  of  our  distant  ends.  Thus  being  one  in  origin 
and  function,  the  simplest  forms  of  cognition  and  the  most 
complex  must  be  dealt  with  alike.  We*  are  bound  in  con- 
sistency to  receive  the  widest  knowledge  which  our  faculties 
can  reach,  or  to  reject  along  with  it  that  narrow  knowledge 
possessed  by  all.  There  is  no  logical  alternative  between 
accepting  our  intelligence  in  its  entirety,  or  repudiating  even 
that  lowest  intelligence  which  we  possess  in  common  with 
brutes. 

To  ask  the  question  which  more  immediately  concerns  our 
argument — whether  Science  is  substantially  true  ? — is  much 

(like  asking  whether  the  sun  gives  light.     And  it  is  because 
they  are  conscious  how  undeniably  valid  are  most  of  its  proposi- 
I  tions,  that  the  theological  party  regard  Science  with  so  much 
I  flocret   alarm.     They   know  that   during  the  two  thousand 
I  years  of  its  growth,   some  of  its  larger   divisions — mathe- 
matics, physics,    astronomy — have  been   subject  to   the   ri- 
gorous criticism  of  successive  generations  ;  and  have  notwith- 
standing become  ever  more  firmly  established.     They  know 


20  RELIGION    AND   SCIENCE. 

tliat,  unlike  many  of  tlieir  own  doctrines,  which,  were  once 
universally  received  but  have  age  by  age  been  more 
frequently  called  in  question,  the  doctrines  of  Science,  at  first 
ron  fined  to  a  few  scattered  inquirers,  have  been  slowly  grow- 
ing into  general  acceptance,  and  are  now-  in  great  part  ad- 
mitted as  beyond  dispute.  They  know  that  men  of  science 
iiiroughout  the  world  subject  each  other's  results  to  the  most 
searching  examination  ;  and  that  error  is  mercilessly  exposed 
and  rejected  as  soon  as  discovered.  And,  finally,  they  know 
that  still  more  conclusive  testimony  is  to  be  found  in  the 
daily  verification  of  scientific  predictions,  and  in  the  never- 
ceasing  triumphs  of  those  arts  which  Science  guides. 

To  regard  with  alienation  that  which  has  such  high 
credentials  is  a  folly.  Though  in  the  tone  which  many  of 
the  scientific  adopt  towards  them,  the  defenders  of  Keligion 
may  find  some  excuse  for  this  alienation;  yet  the  excuse  is  a 
very  insuificient  one.  On  the  side  of  Science,  as  on  their  own 
side,  they  must  admit  that  short- comings  in  the  advocates  do 
not  tell  essentially  against  that  which  is  advocated.  Science 
must  be  judged  by  itself :  and  so  judged,  only  the  most  per- 
verted intellect  can  fail  to  see  that  it  is  Avorthy  of  all- reverence. 
Be  there  or  be  there  not  any  other  revelation,  we  have  a 
veritable  revelation  in  Science — a  continuous  disclosure, 
through  the  intelligence  with  which  we  are  endowed,  of  the 
established  order  of  the  Universe.  This  disclosure  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  one  to  verify  as  far  as  in  him  lies  ;  and  having 
verified,  to  receive  with  all  humilitv. 

§  6.  On  both  sides  of  this  great  controversy,  then,  truth 
must  exist.  An  unbiassed  consideration  of  its  general  aspects 
forces  us  to  conclude  that  Heligion,  everywhere  present  as  a 
weft  running  through  the  warp  of  human  history,  expresses 
some  eternal  fact ;  while  it  is  almost  a  truism  to  say  of  Science 
that  it  is  an  organised  mass  of  facts,  ever  growing,  and  ever 
being  more  completely  purified  from  errors.  And  if  both 
have  bases  in  the  reality  of  thinfjs,  then  between  them  there 


RELIGION    AND    SCIENCE.  21 

must  be  a  fundamental  harmony.  It  is  an  incredible  hj^o- 
tEesis  that  there  are  two  orders  of  truth,  in  absolute  and  ever- 
lasting opposition.  Only  on  some  Manichean  theory,  which 
among  ourselves  no  one  dares  openly  avow  however  much  his 
beliefs  may  be  tainted  by  it,  is  such  a  supposition  even  con- 
ceivable. That  Religion  is  divine  and  Science  diabolical,  is  a 
proposition  which,  though  implied  in  many  a  clerical  declama- 
tion, not  the  most  vehement  fanatic  can  bring  himself  dis- 
tinctly to  assert.  And  whoever  does  not  assert  this,  must 
admit  that  under  their  seeming  antagonism  lies  hidden  an 
entire  agreement. 

Each  side,  therefore,  has  to  recognize  the  claims  of  the  other 
as  standing  for  truths  that  are  not  to  be  ignored.  lie  who 
contemplates  the  Universe  from  the  religious  point  of  view, 
must  learn  to  see  that  this  which  we  call  Science  is  one  con- 
stituent of  the  great  whole  ;  and  as  such  ought  to  be  regarded 
with  a  sentiment  like  that  which  the  remainder  excites. 
While  he  who  contemplates  the  universe,  from  the  scientific 
point  of  view,  must  learn  to  see  that  this  which  we  call  Eeli- 
gion  is  similarly  a  constituent  of  the  great  whole ;  and  being 
such,  must  be  treated  as  a  subject  of  science  with  no  moro 
prejudice  than  any  other  reality.  It  behoves  each  party  to 
strive  to  understand  the  other,  with  the  conviction  that  the 
other  has  something  worthy  to  be  understood ;  and  with  the 
conviction  that  when  mutually  recognized  this  something 
will  be  the  basis  of  a  complete  reconciliation. 

How  to  find  this  something — how  to  reconcile  them,  thua 
becomes  the  problem  which  we  should  perseveringly  try  to 
solve.  Xot  to  reconcile  them  in  any  makeshift  way — not  to 
find  one  of  those  compromises  we  hear  from  time  to  timo 
proposed,  which  their  proposers  must  secretly  feel  are  arti- 
ficial and  temporary  ;  but  to  arrive  at  the  terms  of  a  real  anc 
permanent  peace  between  them.  The  thing  we  have  to  seek 
out,  is  that  ultimate  truth  which  both  will  avow  with  abso- 
lute sincerity — with  not  the,  remotest  mental  reservation. 
There  shall  be  no  concession— no  yielding  on  either  side  of 


22  RELIGION    AND    SaENCE. 

something  that  will  by  and  by  be  reasserted  ;  but  the  common 

ground  on  wbicb  they  meet  shall  be  one  which,  each,  will 

\  maintain  for  itself.     "We  have  to  discover  some  fundamental 

verity  wliich.  Religion  will  assert,  with  all  possible  emphasis, 

j  jin  tbe  absence  of  Science ;  and  wbicb  Science,  witb  all  possible 

I !  emphasis,  will  assert  in  the  absence  of  Religion — some  funda- 

'  /  mental  verity  in  the  defence  of  whicb  each  will  find  the 

other  its  ally.  ^ 

Or,  changing  the  point  of  view,  our  aim  must  be  to  co- 
ordinate the  seemingly  opposed  convictions  which  Eeligion 
and  Science  embody.  From  th.e  coalescence  of  antagonist 
ideas,  each  containing  its  portion  of  truth,  tbere  always  arises 
a  higher  development.  As  in  Geology  when  the  igneous  and 
aqueous  hypotheses  were  united,  a  rapid  advance  took  place  ; 
as  in  Biology  we  are  beginning  to  progress  througb  tbe 
fusion  of  the  doctrine  of  t}^es  with,  tbe  doctrine  of  adapta- 
tions; as  in  Psychology  the  arrested  growth  reconmiences 
now  that  the  disciples  of  Kant  and  those  of  Locke  have  both 
their  views  recognized  in  the  theory  that  organized  ex- 
periences produce  forms  of  thought ;  as  in  Sociology,  now  that 
it  is  beginning  to  assume  a  positive  character,  we  find  a  recog- 
nition of  both  the  party  of  progress  and  the  party  of  order,  as 
each  holding  a  truth  which  forms  a  needful  complement  to 
that  held  by  the  other  ;  so  must  it  be  on  a  grander  scale  with 
Religion  and  Science.  Here  too  we  must  look  for  a  conception 
which  combines  the  conclusions  of  both  ;  and  here  too  we  may 
expect  important  results  from  their  combination.  To  un- 
derstand how  Science  and  Religion  express  opposite  sides  of 
the  same  fact — the  one  its  near  or  visible  side,  and  the  other 
its  remote  or  invisible  side — this  it  is  which  we  must  attempt; 
and  to  achieve  this  must  profoundly  modify  our  general 
Theory  of  Things. 

Already  in  the  foregoing  pages  the  method  of  seeking  such 
a  reconciliation  has  been  vaguely  foreshadowed.  Before  pra- 
ceeding  further,  however,  it  will  be  well  to  treat  the  question 
of  method  more  definitely.      To  find  that  truth  in  which 


RELIGION    AND   SCIENCE.  23 

Religion  and  Science  coalesce,  we  must  know  in  what  di- 
rection to  look  for  it,  and  wliat  kind  of  truth  it  is  likely 
to  be. 

§  7.  "VVe  have  found  a  priori  leason  for  believing  that  in 

all  religions,  even  the  rudest,  there  lies  hidden  a  fundamental 

^  verity.     We  have  inferred  that  this  fundamental  verity  is 

that  element  common  to  all  religions,  which  remains  after 

their  discordant  peculiarities  have  been  mutually  cancelled 

I  And  we  have  further  inferred  that  this  element  is  almost 

I  certain   to   be    more    abstract   than    any    current   religious 

*  doctrine.      ISTow  it_i3__manifest  that  onlyi-iii  -aoma  highly 

abstract  proposition,  can  E^gion  and  Science  find  a  common 

ground.     Neither  such  dogmas  as  those  of  the  trinitarian  and 

unitarian,  nor  any  such  idea  as  that  of  propitiation,  common 

though  it  may  be  to  all  religions,  can  serve  as  the  desired 

basis  of  agreement ;  for  Science  cannot  recognize  beliefs  like 

these :  they  lie  beyond  its  sphere.     Ilence  we  see  not  only 

that,  judgiQg  by  analogy,  the  essential  truth  contaiaed  in 

Religion  is  that  most  abstract  element  pervading  all  its  forms ; 

but  also  that  this  most  abstract  element  is  the  only  one  in 

which  Religion  is  likely  to  agree  with  Science. 

Similarly  if  we  begin  at  the  other  end,  and  inquire  what 
scientific  truth  can  imite  Science  and  Religion.  It  is  at  once 
manifest  that  Religion  can  take  no  cognizance  of  special 
scientific  doctrines ;  any  more  than  Science  can  take  cogni- 
'  zance  of  special  religious  doctrines.  The  truth  which  Science 
asserts  and  Religion  indorses  cannot  be  one  furnished  by 
mathematics ;  nor  can  it  be  a  physical  truth  ;  nor  can  it  be  a 
truth  in  chemistry :  it  cannot  be  a  truth  belonging  to  any 
particular  science.  No  generalization  of  the  phenomena  of 
space,  of  time,  of  matter,  or  of  force,  can  become  a  Religious 
conception.  Such  a  conception,  if  it  anywhere  exists  in 
Science,  must  be  more  general  than  any  of  tliese — must  be 
one  underlying  all  of  them.  If  there  be  a  fact  which 
Science  recognizes  in  common  with  Religion,  it  must  be  that 


Z'±  RELIGION    AND   SCIENCE, 

fact  from  which  the  several  branches  of  Science  diverge,  as 
from  their  common  root. 

Assmniiig  then,  that  since  these  two  great  realities  are 

constituents  of  the  same  mind,  and  respond  to  different  aspects 

of  the  same  Universe,  there  must  be  a  fundamental  harmony 

between  them  ;  we  see  good  reason  to  conclude  that  the  most 

|--^stract  truth  contained  in  Religion  and  the  most  abstract 

y  truth  contained  in  Science  must  be  the  one  in  which  the  two 

^coalesce.     The  largest  fact  to  be  found  within  our  mental 

range  must  be  the  one  of  which  we  are. in  search.     Uniting 

these  positive  and  negative  poles  of  human  thought,  it  must 

be  the  ultimate  fact  in  our  intelligence. 

§  8.  Before  proceeding  in  the  search  for  this  common 
datum  let  me  bespeak  a  little  patience.  The  next  three 
chapters,  setting  out  from  different  points  and  converging  to 
the  same  conclusion,  will  be  comparatively  unattractive. 
Students  of  philosophy  will  find  in  them  much  that  is  more 
or  less  familiar ;  and  to  most  of  those  who  are  unacquainted 
with  the  literature  of  modem  metaphysics,  they  may  prove 
somewhat  difficult  to  follow. 

Our  argument  however  cannot  dispense  with  these  chap- 
ters ;  and  the  greatness  of  the  question  at  issue  justifies  even 
a  heavier  tax  on  the  reader's  attention.  The  matter  is  one 
which  concerns  each  and  all  of  us  more  than  any  other  matter 
whatever.  Though  it  affects  us  little  in  a  direct  way,  the  view 
we  arrive  at  must  indirectly  affect  us  in  all  our  relations — must 
determine  our  conception  of  the  Universe,  of  Life,  of  Human 
Nature — must  influence  our  ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  and  so 
.  modify  our  conduct.  To  reach  that  point  of  view  from  which 
the  seeming  discordance  of  Religion  and  Science  disappears, 
and  the  two  merge  into  one,  must  cause  a  revolution  of 
thought  fruitful  in  beneficial  consequences,  and  must  surely 
bo  worth  an  effort. 

Here  ending  preliminaries,  let  us  now  address  ourselve«  to 
this  all-important  inquiry. 


CHAPTER  n. 

ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS. 

§  9.  TVhen,  on  tlie  sea-sHore,  we  note  how  the  hulls  of 
distant  vessels  are  hidden  below  the  horizon,  and  how,  of  still 
remoter  vessels,  only  the  uppermost  sails  are  visible,  we 
realize  with  tolerable  clearness  the  slight  curvature  of  that 
portion  of  the  sea's  surface  which  lies  before  us.  But  when 
we  seek  in  imagination  to  follow  out  this  curved  surface  as  it 
actually  exists,  slowly  bending  round  until  aU  its  meridians 
meet  in  a  point  eight  thousand  miles  below  our  feet,  we  find 
ourselves  utterly  baffled.  "VVe  cannot  conceive  in  its  real 
form  and  magnitude  even  that  small  segment  of  our  globe 
which  extends  a  hundred  miles  on  every  side  of  us ;  much 
less  the  globe  as  a  whole.  The  piece  of  rock  on  which  we 
stand  can  be  mentally  represented  with  something  like  com- 
pleteness :  we  find  ourselves  able  to  think  of  its  top,  its  sides, 
and  its  under  surface  at  the  same  time ;  or  so  nearly  at  the 
same  time  that  they  seem  all  present  in  consciousness  together; 
and  so  we  can  form  what  we  call  a  conception  of  the  rock. 
But  to  do  the  like  with  the  Earth  we  find  impossible.  If 
even  to  imagine  the  antipodes  as  at  that  distant  place  in 
space  which  it  actually  occupies,  is  beyond  our  power  ;  much 
more  •beyond  our  power  must  it  be  at  the  same  time  to 
imagine  all  other  remote  points  on  the  Earth's  surface  as 
in  their  actual  places.  Yet  we  habitually  speak  as  though 
jwe  had  an  idea  of  the  Earth— ^as  though  we  could  think  of  it 
|in  the  same  way  that  we  think  of  minor  objects. 


'<^6  ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS. 

"WTiat  conception,  then,  do  we  form  of  it  ?  the  reader  may 
ask.  That  its  name  calls  up  in  us  some  state  of  consciousness 
is  unquestionable  ;  and  if  this  state  of  consciousness  is  not  a 
conception,  properly  so  called,  what  is  it  ?  The  answer  seems 
to  be  this  : — We  have  learnt  by  indirect  methods  that  the 
Earth  is  a  sphere ;  we  have  formed  models  approximately 
representing  its  shape  and  the  distribution  of  its  parts  ; 
generally  when  the  Earth  is  referred  to,  we  either  think  of  an 
indefinitely  extended  mass  beneath  our  feet,  or  else,  leaving 
out  the  actual  Earth,  we  think  of  a  body  like  a  terrestrial 
globe ;  but  when  we  seek  to  imagine  the  Earth  as  it  really  is, 
we  join  these  two  ideas  as  well  as  we  can — such  perception  as 
our  eyes  give  us  of  the  Earth's  surface  we  couple  with  the 
conception,  of  a  sphere.  And  thus  we  form  of  the  Earth,  no|; 
a  conception  properly  so  called,  but  only  a  symbolic  concep- 
tion. *  ^ 

A  large  proportion  of  our  conceptions,  including  all  those 
of  much  generality,  are  of  this  order.  Great  magnitudes, 
great  durations,  great  numbers,  are  none  of  them  actually 
conceived,  but  are  all  of  them  conceived  more  or  less  symbol- 
ically ;  and  so,  too,  are  all  those  classes  of  objects  of  which  we 
predicate  some  common  fact.  When  mention  is  made  of  any 
individual  man,  a  tolerably  complete  idea  of  him  is  formed. 
If  the  family  he  belongs  to  be  spoken  of,  probably  but  a  part 
of  it  will  be  represented  in  thought :  under  the  necessity  of 
attending  to  that  which  is  said  about  the  family,  we  realize  in 
imagination  only  its  most  important  or  familiar  members, 
and  pass  over  the  rest  with  a  nascent  consciousness  which  we 
know  could,  if  requisite,  be  made  complete.  Should  some- 
thing be  remarked  of  the  class,  say  farmers,  to  which  this 
family  belongs,  we  neither  enumerate  in  thought  all  the  indi- 
viduals contained  in  the  class,  nor  believe  that  we  could«do  so 
if  required ;  but  we  are  content  with  taking  some  few  samples 

*  Those  who  may  have  before  met  with  this  term,  will  perceive  that  it  is  hew 
used  in  quite  a  different  Mnse. 


ULTIMATE    RELIGIOrS    IDEAS.  27 

of  it,  and  remembering  that  these  could  be  indefinitely  mul- 
tiplied. Supposing  the  subject  of  which  something  is  predi- 
cated be  Englishmen,  the  answering  state  of  consciousness  is 
a  still  more  inadequate  representative  of  the  reality.  Yet 
more  remote  is  the  likeness  of  the  thought  to  the  thing,  if 
reference  be  made  to  Europeans  or  to  human  beings.  And 
when  we  come  to  propositions  concerning  the  mammalia,  or 
concerning  the  whole  of  the  vertebrata,  or  concerning  animals 
in  general,  or  concerning  all  organic  beings,  the  unlikeness  of 
our  conceptions  to  the  objects  named  reaches  its  extreme. 
Throughout  which  series  of  instances  we  see,  that  as  the 
nimiber  of  objects  grouped  together  in  thought  increases,  the 
concept,  formed  of  a  fetv  typical  samples  joined  with  the 
notion  of  multiplicity,  becomes  more  and  more  a  mere  symbol ; 
not  only  because  it  gradually  ceases  to  represent  the  size  of 
the  group,  but  also  because  as  the  group  grows  more  hetero- 
geneous, the  tjrpical  samples  thought  of  are  less  like  the 
average  objects  which  the  group  contains. 

Thi3_formation  of  S}Tnbolic  conceptions,  which  inevitably 
^  arises  as  we  pass  from  small  and  concrete  objects  to  large  and 
i^to  discrete  ones,  is  mostly  a  very  useful,  and  indeed  necessary, 
process.  When,  instead  of  things  whose  attributes  can  bo 
tolerably  well  united  in  a  single  state  of  consciousness,  we 
have  to  deal  with  things  whose  attributes  are  too  vast  or 
numerous  to  be  so  united,  we  must  either  drop  in  thought 
part  of  their  attributes,  or  else  not  think  of  them  at  all — 
either  forni  a  more  or  less  symbolic  conception,  or  no  concep- 
tion. We  must  predicate  nothing  of  objects  too  great  or  too 
multitudinous  to  be  mentally  represented  ;  or  we  must  make 
our  predications  by  the  help  of  extremely  inadequate  repre- 
sentations of  such  objects — mere  S3Tiibols  of  them. 

But  while  by  this  process  alone  we  are  enabled  to  form 
general  propositions,  and  so  to  reach  general  conclusions,  we  are 
by  this  process  perpetually  led  into  danger,  and  very  often 
into  error.  We  habitually  mistake  our  s3rmbolic  conceptions 
for  real  ones ;  and  so  are  betrayed  into  countless  false  infer- 


I 


28  *  ULTIMATE   EELIGIOUS   IDEAS. 

ences.     Not  only  is  it  that  in  proportion  as  the  concept  we 
form  of  any  thing  or  class  of  things,  misrepresents  the  reality, 
we  are  apt  to  be  wrong  in  any  assertion  we  make  respecting 
the  reality ;  but  it  is  that  we  are  led  to  suppose  we  have  truly 
conceived  a  great  variety  of  things  which  we  have  conceived 
only  in  this  fictitious  way ;    and  further  to  confound  with 
these  certain  things  which  cannot  be-  conceived  in  any  way. 
How  almost  unavoidably  we  fall  into  this  error  it  will  be 
needful  here  to  observe. 
J    From  objects  readily  representable  in  their  totality,  to  those 
/      of  which  we  cannot  form  even  an  approximate  representation, 
""^  -'tjiere  is  an  insensible  transition.     Between  a  pebble  and  the 
entire  Earth  a  series  of  magnitudes  might  be  introduced,  each 
of  which  differed  from  the  adjacent  ones  so  slightly  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  say  at  what  point  in  the  series  our 
conceptions  of  them  became  inadequate.     Similarly,  there  is 
a  gradual  progression  from  those  groups  of  a  few  individuals 
which  we  can  think  of  as  groups  with  tolerable  completeness, 
to   those  larger   and  larger   groups  of  which  we  can  form 
nothing  like  true  ideas.     "Whence  it  is  manifest  that  we  pass 
from  actual  conceptions   to   symbolic   ones  by  infinitesimal 
steps.     Note  next  that  we  are  led  to  deal  with  our  symbolic . 
conceptions  as  though  they  were  actual  ones,  not  only  because 
we  cannot  clearly  separate  the  two,  but  also  because,  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases,  the  first  serve  our  purposes  nearly  or 
quite  as  well  as  the  last — are  simply  the  abbre^aated  signs 
we  substitute  for  those  more  elaborate  signs  which  are  our 
equivalents  for  real  objects.     Those  very  imperfect  represent- 
ations of  ordinary  things  which  we  habitually  make  in  thinking, 
we  know  can  be  developed  into  adequate  ones  if  needful.  Those 
concepts  of  larger  magnitudes   and  more   extensive  classes 
which  we  cannot  make  adequate,  we  still  find  can  be  verified 
by  some   indirect  process  of  measurement  or  enumeration. 
And  even  in  the  case  of  such  an  utterly  inconceivable  object 
as  the  Solar  System,  we  yet,  through  the  fidfilment  of  pre- 
dictions founded  on  our  symbolic  conception  of  it,  gain  the 


ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS.  29 

conviction  that  this  symbolic  conception  stands  for  an  actual 
existence,   and,   in   a   sense,   truly   expresses   certain   of  its 
constituent  relations.     Thus  our  s}Tnbolic  conceptions  being 
in  the  majority  of  cases  capable  of  development  into  complete 
ones,  and  in  most  other  cases  serving  as  steps  to  conclusions 
which  are  proved  valid  by  their  correspondence  with  observa- 
tion, we  acquire  a  confirmed  habit  of  dealing  with  them  as 
true    conceptions  —  as    real    representations    of   actualities. 
Learning  by  long  experience  that  they  can,  if  needful,  be 
verified,  we  are  led  habitually  to  accept  them  without  verifi- 
./cation.     And  thus  we  open  the  door  to  some  which  profess 
f    to  stand  for  kiiown  things,  but  which  really  stand  for  tilings 
^    that  cannot  be  known  in  any  way. 

To  sum  up,  we  must  say  of  conceptions  in  general,  that  [j 
they  are  complete  only  when  the  attributes  of  the  objci't 
conceived  are  of  such  number  and  kind  that  they  can  be. 
ifepresented  in  consciousness  so  nearly  at  the  same  time  as  to  ^ 
seem  all  present  together ;  that  as  the  objects  conceived 
become  larger  and  more  complex,  some  of  the  attributes  first 
thought  of  fade  from  consciousness  before  the  rest  have  been 
represented,  and  the  conception  thus  becomes  imperfect ;  that 
when  the  size,  complexity,  or  discreteness  of  the  object 
conceived  becomes  very  great,  only  a  small  portion  of  its 
attributes  can  be  thought  of  at  once,  and  the  conception 
formed  of  it  thus  becomes  so  inadequate  as  to  be  a  mere  sym- 
bol ;  that  nevertheless  such  symbolic  conceptions,  which  are 
indispensable  in  general  thinking,  are  legitimate,  provided 
j  that  by  some  cumulative  or  indirect  process  of  thought,  or  by 
{ ^Q  fulfilment  of  predictions  based  on  them,  we  can  assure 
I  ourselves  that  they  stand  for  actualities ;  but  that  when  our 
symbolic  conceptions  are  such  that  no  cumulative  or  indirect 
processes  of  thought  can  enable  us  to  ascertain  that  there  are 
corresponding  actualities,  nor  any  predictions  be  made  whoso 
fulfilment  can  prove  this,  then  they  are  altogether  vicious  and 
Illusive,  and  in  no  way  distinguishable  from  pure  fictions. 
3 


80  ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS. 

§  10.  And  now  to  consider  the  bearings  of  this  general 
truth  on  our  immediate  topic — Ultimate  Religious  Ideas. 

To  the  mind  as  it  develops  in  speculative  power,  the 
problem  of  the  Universe  suggests  itself.  What  is  it  ?  and 
whence  comes  it  ?  are  questions  that  press  for  solution,  when, 
from  time  to  time,  the  imagination  rises  above  daily  triviali- 
ties. To  fill  the  vacuum  of  thought,  any  theory  that  is 
proposed  seems  better  than  none.  And  in  the  absence  of 
others,  any  theory  that  is  proposed  easily  gains  a  footing  and 
afterwards  maintains  its  ground :  partly  from  the  readiness  of 
mankind  to  accept  proximate  explanations ;  partly  from  the 
authority  which  soon  accumulates  round  such  explanations 
when  given. 

A  critical  examination,  however,  will  prove  not  only  that 
no  current  hypothesis  is  tenable,  but  also  that  no  tenable 
hypothesis  can  be  framed. 

§  11.  Respecting  the  origin  of  the  Universe  three  verbally 
intelligible  suppositions  may  be  made.  We  may  assert  that  it 
is  self-existent ;  or  that  it  is  self-created  ;  or  that  it  is  created 
by  an  external  agency.  Which  of  these  suppositions  is  most 
credible  it  is  not  needful  here  to  inquire.  The  deeper  ques- 
tion, into  whicb  this  finally  merges,  is,  whether  any  one  of 
them  is  even  conceivable  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  Let 
US'  successively  test  them. 

^yhen  we  speak  of  a  man  as  self-supporting,  of  an  appa- 
ratus as  self-acting,  or  of  a  tree  as  self-developed,  our  ex- 
pressions, however  inexact,  stand  for  things  that  can  bo 
rc<alized  in  thought  with  tolerable  completeness.  Our  con- 
ception of  the  self-development  of  a  tree  is  doubtless 
symbolic.  But  though  we  cannot  really  represent  in  con- 
sciousness the  entire  series  of  complex  changes  through  which 
the  tree  passes,  yet  we  can  thus  represent  the  leading  features 
of  the  series  ;  and  general  experience  teaches  us  that  by  long 
continued  observation  we  could  gain  the  power  to  realize  in 
thought  a  series  of  changes  more  fully  representing  the  actual 


TTLTIMATE    RELTGinUS    IDEAfl.  31 

series :  that  is,  we  know  that  our  symbolic  conception  of  self- 
development  can  be  expanded  into  something  like  a  real 
conception ;  and  that  it  expresses,  however  inaccurately,  an 
actual  process  in  nature.  But  when  we  speak  of  self- exist- 
ence, and,  helped  by  the  above  analogies,  form  some  vague  8}Tn- 
bolic  conception  of  it,  we  delude  ourselves  in  supposing  that 
this  symbolic  conception  is  of  the  same  order  as  the  others.  On 
joining  the  word  self  to  the  word  existence y  the  force  of 
association  makes  us  believe  we  have  a  thought  like  that 
suggested  by  the  compound  word  self-acting.  An  endeavour 
to  expand  this  symbolic  conception,  however,  will  undeceive 
us.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  clear  that  by  self- existence'*''***^ 

we  especially"  mean,  an  existence  independent  of  any  other — ^^ 
not  produced  by  any  other :  the  assertion  of  self-existence  is^ 
simply  an  indirect  denial  of  creation.     In  thus  excluding  the 
idea  of  any  antecedent  cause,  we  necessarily  exclude  thc^  iden^*- 
d'  a  beginning ;  for  to  admit  the  idea  of  a  beginning — to 
admit  that  there  was  a  time  when  the  existence  had  not  com- 
menced— is  to  admit  that  its  cormnencement  was  determined  . 
by  something,  or  was  caused  ;  which  is  a  contradiction.     Self-f 
existence,  therefore,  necessarily  means  existence  mthout  a, 
beginning ;  and  to  form  a  conception  of  self-existence  is  to  } 
form  a  conception  of  existence  without  a  beginning.      Now  bjr^/ 
no   mental   effort  can   we   do  this.      To  conceive  existence 
through  iafinite  past-time,  implies  the  conception  of  infinite 
p£ist-time,  which  is  an  impossibility.  To  this  let  us  add, 

that  even  were  self-existence  conceivable,  it  would  not  in  any 
sense  be  an  explanation  of  the  Universe.  No  one  will  say 
that  the  existence  of  an  object  at  the  present  moment  is 
made  easier  to  understand  by  the  discovery  that  it  existed  an 
hour  ago,  or  a  day  ago,  or  a  year  ago  ;  and  if  its  existence 
now  is  not  made  in  the  least  degree  more  comprehensible  by 
its  existence  during  some  previous  finite  period  o£»  time,  then 
no  accumulation  of  such  finite  periods,  even  could  we  extend 
them  to  an  infinite  period,  would  make  it  more  comprehensible.  , 
Thus  the  Atheistic  theory  is  not  only  absolutely  unthinkable, 


c 


32  ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS. 

but,  even  if  it  were  thinkable,  would  not  be  a  solution.  Tkc 
assertion  that  the  Universe  is  self-existent  does  not  really  carry 
us  a  step  beyond  tlie  cognition  of  its  present  existence ;  and 
80  leaves  tls  with  a  mere  re-statement  of  the  mystery. 

The  hypothesis  of  self-creation,  which  practically  amounts 
to  what  is  called  Pantheism,  is  similarly  incapable  of  being 
represented  in  thought.  Certain  phenomena,  such  as  the 
precipitation  of  invisible  vapour  into  cloud,  aid  us  in  forming 
a  symbolic  conception  of  a  self-evolved  Universe  ;  and  there 
are  not  wanting  indications  in  the  heavens,  and  on  the  earth, 
which  help  us  to  render  this  conception  tolerably  definite. 
But  while  the  succession  of  phases  through  which  the 
Universe  has  passed  in  reaching  its  present  form,  may 
perhaps  be  comprehended  as  in  a  sense  self-determined ;  yet 
the  impossibility  of  expanding  our  symbolic  conception  of  self- 
creation  into  a  real  conception,  remains  as  complete  as  ever. 
>^^eally  to  conceive  self-creation,  is  to  conceive  potential 
existence  passiag  into  actual  existence  by  some  inherent 
necessity  ;    which   we    cannot    do.  We    cannot    form 

any  idea  of  a  potential  existence  of  the  universe,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  its  actual  existence.  If  represented  in 
thought  at  all,  potential  existence  must  be  represented  as 
something,  that  is  as  an  actual  existence ;  to  suppose  that  it 
can  be  represented  as  nothing,  involves  two  absurdities — 
that  nothing  is  more  than  a  negation,  and  can  be  positively 
represented  in  thought;  and  that  one  nothing  is  distinguished 
from  all  other  nothings  by  its  power  to  develope  into  some- 
thing. Nor  is  this  all.  We  have  no  state  of  conscious-, 
iiess  answering  to  the  words — an  inherent  necessity  by  which 
potential  existence  became  actual  existence.  To  render  them 
into  thought,  existence,  having  for  an  indefinite  period  re- 
mained in  one  form,  must  be  conceived  as  passing  without 
any  external  or  additional  impulse,  into  another  form ;  and 
this  involves  the  idea  of  a  change  Tsathout  a  cause— a  thing 
of  which  no  idea  is  possible.  Thus  the  terms  of  this  hj-po- 
thesis  do  not  stand  for  real  thoughts ;  but  merely  suggest  the 


ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS.  83 

vaguest  symbols  incapable  of  any  interpretation.  More- 

over, even  were  it  true  that  potential  existence  is  conceivable 
as  a  different  thing  from  actual  existence ;  and  that  the  transi- 
tion from  the  one  to  the  other  can  be  mentally  realized  as  a 
self-determined  change ;  we  should  still  be  no  forwarder  :  the 
problem  would  simply  be  removed  a  step  back.  For  whence 
the  potential  existence?  This  would  just  as  much  require 
accounting  for  as  actual  existence ;  and  just  the  same  difficul- 
ties would  meet  us.  Kespecting  the  origin  of  such,  a  latent 
power,  no  other  suppositions  could  be  made  than  those  above 
named  —  self- existence,  self-creation,  creation  by  external 
agency.  The  self-existence  of  a  potential  universe  is  no 
more  conceivable  than  we  have  found  the  self-existence  of  the 
actual  universe  to  be.  The  self-creation  of  such  a  potential 
universe  would  involve  over  again  the  difficulties  here 
stated — would  imply  behind  this  potential  imiverse  a  more 
remote  potentiality ;  "and  so  on  in  an  infinite  series,  leaving 
us  at  last  no  forwarder  than  at  first,  "WTiile  to  assign  as  the 
source  of  this  potential  universe  an  external  agency,  would  be 
to  introduce  the  notion  of  a  potential  universe  for  no  purpose 
whatever. 

There  remains  to  be  examined  the  commonly-received  or 

theistic  hypothesis — creation  by  external  agency.     Alike  in 

the  rudest  creeds  and  in  the  cosmogony  long  current  among 

ourselves,  it  is  assumed  that  the  genesis  of  the  Heavens  and 

the  Earth,  is  effected  somewhat  after  the  manner  in  which  a 

workman  shapes  a  piece  of  furniture.     And  this  assumption 

is  made  not  by  theologians  only,  but  by  the  irmnense  majority 

of  philosophers,  past  and  present.     Equally  in  the  writings  of 

,  Plato,  and  in  those  of  not  a  few  living  men  of  science,  we 

/  find  it  taken  for  granted  that  there  is  an  analogy  between  the 

■N^rocess  of  creation  and  the  process  of  manufacture.  .  "Now 

in  the  first  place,  not  only  is  this  conception  one  that  cannot 

by  any  cumulative  process  of  thought,  or  the  fulfilment  of 

predictions  based  on  it,  be   shown  to   answer  to   anything 

actual ;  and  not  only  is  it  that  in  the  absence  of  all  evidence 


34  ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS    IDEAS. 

respfecting  the  process  of  creation,  we  have  no  proof  of  eorre- 
epondence  even  between  this  limited  conception  and  some 
limited  portion  of  the  fact;  but  it  is  that  the  conception 
is  not  even  consistent  with  itself — cannot  be  realized  in 
thought,  when  all  its  assumptions  are  granted.  Though  it  is 
true  that  the  proceedings  of  a  human  artificer  may  vaguely 
6}Tnbolize  to  us  a  method  after  which  the  Universe  might  ba 
shaped,  yet  they  do  not  help  us  to  comprehend  the  real 
mystery ;  namely,  the  origin  of  the  material  of  which  the 
Universe  consists.  The  artizan  does  not  make  the  iron,  wood, 
or  stone,  he  uses ;  but  merely  fashions  and  combines  them. 
If  we  suppose  suns,  and  planets,  and  satellites,  and  all  they 
contain  to  have  been  similarly  formed  by  a  "  Great  Artificer," 
we  suppose  merely  that  certain  pre-existing  elements  were 
thus  put  into  their  present  arrangement.  Eut  whence  the 
pre-existing  elements  ?  The  comparison  helps  us  not  in  the 
least  to  understand  that ;  and  unless  it  helps  us  to  understand 
that,  it  is  worthless.  The  ]groduction  of  matter  out  of  nothing 
is  the  real  mystery,  which  neither  this  simile  nor  any  other 
enables  us  to  conceive  ;  and  a  simile  which  does  not  enable  us 
^to  conceive  this,  may  just  as  well  be  dispensed  with.  StiU 

more  manifest  does  the  insufiiciency  of  this  theory  of  creation 
become,  when  we  turn  from  material  objects  to  that  which 
contains  them — when  instead  of  matter  we  contemplate  space. 
Did  there  exist  nothing  but  an  immeasurable  void,  explanation 
would  be  needed  as  much  as  now.  There  would  still  arise  the 
question — how  came  it  so  ?  If  the  theory  of  creation  by  ex- 
ternal agency  were  an  adequate  one,  it  would  supply  an 
answer ;  and  its  answer  would  be— space  was  made  in  the  same 
manner  that  matter  was  made.  But  the  impossibility  of  con- 
ceiving this  is  so  manifest,  that  no  one  dares  to  assert  it.  For 
if  epape  was  created,  it  must  have  been  previously  non-existent. 
The  non-existence  of  space  cannot,  however,  by  any  mental 
efibrt  be  imagined.  It  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  truths  that 
the  idea  of  space  as  surrounding  us  on  all  sides,  is  not  for  m  mo- 
ment to  be  got  rid  of— not  only  are  wo  compelled  to  think  of 


ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS.  35 

Space  as  now  everywliere  present,  but  we  are  unable  to  con- 
ceive its  absence  either  in  the  past  or  tbe  future.  And  if  tbe 
uon-existence  of  space  is  absolutely  inconceivable,  tben,  neces- 
sarily, its  creation  is  absolutely  inconceivable.  Lastly, 
even  supposing  tbat  the  genesis  of  the  Universe  could  really 
be  represented  in  tbougbt  as  the  result  of  an  external  agency, 
the  mystery  would  be  as  great  as  ever ;  for  there  would  stiU 

^,r  arise  the  question — how  came  there  to  be  an  external  agency  ? 

'^  To  account  for  this  only  the  same  three  hj^otheses  are  possible 
— self-existence,  self-creation,  and  creation  by  external  agency. 
Of  these  the  last  is  useless  :  it  commits  us  to  an  infinite  series 
of  such  agencies,  and  even  then  leaves  us  where  we  were.  By 
the  second  we  are  practically  involved  in  the  same  predica- 
ment ;  since,  as  already  shown,  self-creation  implies  an  infinite 
series  of  potential  existences.  We  are  obhged  therefore  to  fall 
back  upon  the  first,  which  is  the  one  commonly  accepted  and 
commonly  supposed  to  be  satisfactory.  Those  who  cannot 
conceive  a  self-existent  universe ;  and  who  therefore  assume 
a  creator  as  the  source  of  the  universe ;  take  for  granted  that 
they  can  conceive  a  self-existent  creator.  The  mystery 
which  they  recognize  in  this  great  fact  surroimding  them  on 
every  side,  they  transfer  to  an  alleged  source  of  this  great 
fact ;  and  then  suppose  that  they  have  solved  the  mystery. 
But  they  delude  themselves.  As  was  proved  at  the  outset  of 
the  argument,  self-existence  is  rigorously  inconceivable  ;  and 

^  this  holds  true  whatever  be  the  nature  of  the  object  of  A\'hich 

. — ^it  is  predicated.  Whoever  agrees  that  the  atheistic  li}^- 
thesis  is  untenable  because  it  involves  the  impossible  idea  of 
self-existence,  must  perforce  admit  that  the  theistic  hj^oo- 
thesis  is  untenable  if  it  contains  the  same  impossible  idea. 

Thus  these  three  difierent  suppositions  respecting  the  oiigiii 
of  things,  verbally  intelligible  though  they  are,  and  severally 
seeming  to  their  respective  adherents  quite  rational,  turn  out, 
when  critically  examined,  to  be  literally  unthinkable.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  probabiKty,  or  credibility,  but  of  conceiv- 
ability.     Experiment  proves  that  the  elements  of  these  hypo- 


.  CO 


36  ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS. 

tlieses  cannot  even  be  put  togetlier  in  consciousness ;  and 
we  can  entertain  them  only  as  we  entertain  such,  pseud-ideas 
as  a  square  fluid  and  a  moral  substance — only  by  abstaining 
from  the  endeavour  to  render  them  into  actual  thoughts. 
Or,  reverting  to  our  original  mode  of  statement,  we  may  say 
that  they  severally"  involve  symbolic  conceptions  of  the  illegiti^ 
mate  and  illusive  kind.  Differing  so  widely  as  they  seem  to 
do,  the  atheistic,  the  pantheistic,  and  the  thcistic  hypotheses 
contain  the  same  ultimate  element.  It  is  impossible  to  avoid 
aking  the  assumption  of  self-existence  somewhere;  and 
whether  that  assumption  be  made  nakedly,  or  under  compli- 
cated disguises,  it  is  equally  vicious,  equally  imthinkable.  Be 
it  a  fragment  of  matter,  or  some  fancied  potential  form  of 
matter,  or  some  more  remote  and  still  less  imaginable  cause, 
our  conception  of  its  self-existence  can  be  formed  only  by 
joining  with  it  the  notion  of  unlimited  duration  through  past 
tune.  And  as  unlimited  duration  is  inconceivable,  all  those 
formal  ideas  into  which  it  enters  are  inconceivable  ;  and  indeed, 
if  such  an  expression  is  allowable,  are  the  more  inconceivable 
in  proportion  as  the  other  elements  of  the  ideas  are  indefinite. 
So  that  in  fact,  impossible  as  it  is  to  think  of  the  actual  uni- 
verse as  self- existing,  we  do  but  multiply  impossibilities  of 
thought  by  every  attempt  we  make  to  explain  its  existence. 

^  %  12.  If  from  the  origin  of  the  Universe  we  turn  to  its 
nature,  the  like  insurmountable  difficulties  rise  up  l^efore  ua 
on  all  sides — or  rather,  the  same  difficulties  under  new  aspects. 
We  find  ourselves  on  the  one  hand  obliged  to  make  certain 
assumptions ;  and  yet  on  the  other  hand  we  find  these  assump- 
tions cannot  be  represented  in  thought. 

When  we  inquire  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  various  effects 
produced  upon  our  senses — when  we  ask  how  there  come  to 
be  in  our  consciousness  impressions  of  sounds,  of  colours,  of 
tastes,  and  of  those  various  attributes  which  we  ascribe  to 
bodies ;  we  are  compelled  to  regard  them  as  the  effects  of 
some  cause.     We  may  stop  short  in  the  beb'ef  that  this  cause 


ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS.  37 

is  what  we  call  matter.  Or  we  may  conclude,  as  some  do,  that 
matter  is  only  a  certain  mode  of  manifestation  of  spirit ; 
wliich  is  therefore  the  true  cause.  Or,  regarding  matter  and 
epii'it  as  proximate  agencies,  we  may  attribute  aU  the  changes 
wrought  in  our  consciousness  to  immediate  divine  power. 
/^ut  be  the  cause  we  assign  what  it  may,  we  are  obliged  to 
^uppose  some  cause.  And  we  are  not  only  obliged  to  suppose 
some  cause,  but  also  a  first  cause.  The  matter,  or  spirit,  or 
whatever  we  assume  to  be  the  agent  producing  on  us  these 
various  impressions,  must  either  be  the  first  cause  of  them  or 
not.  If  it  is  the  first  cause,  the  conclusion  is  reached.  If  it 
is  not  the  first  cause,  then  by  implication  there  must  be  a 
cause  behind  it^  which  thus  becomes  the  real  cause  of  the 
effect.  Manifestly,  however  complicated  the  assumptions,  the 
same  conclusion  must  inevitably  be  reached.  We  cannot 
think  at  all  about  the  impressions  which  the  external  world 
produces  on  us,  without  thinking  of  them  as  caused ;  and  we 
cannot  carry  out  an  inquiry  concerning  their  causation,  with- 
out ine^dtably  committing  ourselves  to  the  hj^othesis  of  a 
First  Cause. 
.  But  now  if  we  go  a  step  further,  and  ask  what  is  the  nature 
of  this  First  Cause,  we  are  driven  by  an  inexorable  logic  to 
certain  further  conclusions.  Is  the  First  Cause  finite  or  in- 
finite? If  we  say  finite  we  involve  ourselves  in  a  dilemma. 
To  think  of  the  First  Cause  as'  finite,  is  to  think  of  it  as 
limited.  To  think  of  it  as  limited,  necessarily  implies  a  con- 
ception of  something  beyond  its  limits  :  it  is  absolutely  im- 
possible to  conceive  a  thing  as  boimded  without  conceiving  a 
region  surrormding  its  boundaries.  •  What  now  must  we  say  of 
this  region  ?  If  the  First  Cause  is  limited,  and  there  conse- 
quently lies  something  outside  of  it,  this  something  must  have 
no  First  Cause — must  be  uncaused.  But  if  we  admit  that  there 
can  be  something  uncaused,  there  is  no  reason  to  assimie  a  cause 
tor  anything.  If  beyond  that  finite  region  over  which  the  First 
Cause  extends,  there  lies  a  region,  which  we  are  compelled  to 
regard  as  infinite,  over  which  it  does  not  extend — if  we  admit 


38  ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS.- 

that  there  is  an  infinite  uncaused  surrounding  the  finite  caused; 
we  tacitly  abandon  the  hypothesis  of  causation  altogether.  Thus 
it  is  impossible  to  consider  the  First  Cause  as  finite.  And  if 
it  cannot  be  finite  it  must  be  infinite. 

Another  inference  concerning  the  First  Cause  is  equally 
unavoidable.  It  must  be  independent.  If  it  is  dependent  it 
cannot  be  the  First  Cause ;  for  that  must  be  the  First 
Cause  on  which  it  depends.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  it  is 
partially  independent;  since  this  implies  some  necessity  which 
determines  its  partial  dependence,  and  this  necessity,  be  it 
what  it  may,  must  be  a  higher  cause,  or  the  true  First  Cause, 
which  is  a  contradiction.  But  to  think  of  the  First  Cause  as 
totally  independent,  is  to  think  of  it  as  that* which  exists  in 
the  absence  of  all  other  existence  ;  seeing  that  if  the  presence 
of  any  other  existence  is  necessary,  it  must  be  partially  de- 
pendent on  that  other  existence,  and  so  cannot  be  the  First 
Cause.  Not  only  however  must  the  First  Cause  be  a  form  of 
being  which  has  no  necessary  relation  to  any  other  form  of 
bemg,  but  it  can  have  no  necessary  relation  within  itself. 
There  can  be  nothing  in  it  which  determines  change,  and  yet 
nothmg  which  prevents  change.  For  if  it  contains  something 
\>hieh  imjoses  such  necessities  or  restraints,  this  something 
must  be  a  cause  higher  than  the  First  Cause,  which  is  absurd. 
Thjus  the  First  Cause  must  be  in  every  sense  perfect,  complete, 
total :  including  within  itself  all  power,  and  transcending  all 
law.     Ov  to  use  the  established  word,  it  must  be  absolute. 

Here  then  respecting  the  nature  of  the  Universe,  we  seem 
committed  to  certain  unavoidable  conclusions.  The  objects 
and  actions  surrounding  us,  not  less  than  the  phenomena  of 
our  own  consciousness,  compel  us  to  ask  a  cause ;  in  our  search 
J  for  a  cause,  we  discover  no  resting  place  until  we  arrive  at  the 
li  hypothesis  of  a  First  Cause  ;  and  .we  have  no  alternative  but 
to  regard  this  First  Cause  as  Infinite  and  Absolute.  These 
are  inferences  forced  upon  us  by  arguments  from  which  there 
appears  no  escape.  It  is  hardly  needful  however  to  show 
those  who  have  followed  thus  far,   how  illusive   are  these 


ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS.  39 

reasonings  and  their  results.  But  tliat  it  wouid  tax  tho 
reader's  patience  to  no  purpose,  it  miglit  easily  be  proved 
that  tlie  materials  of  which,  the  argument  is  built,  equally 
with  the  conclusions  based  on  them,  are  merely  symbolic  con- 
ceptions of  the  illegitimate  order.  Instead,  however,  of  re- 
peating the  disproof  used  above,  it  will  be  desirable  to  pursue 
another  method ;  showing  the  fallacy  of  these  conclusions  by 
disclosing  their  mutual  contradictions. 

Here  I  cannot  do  better  than  avail  myself  of  the  demonstra- 
tion which  Mr  Mansel,  carrying  out  in  detail  the  doctrine  of 
Sir  WiUiam  Hamilton,  has  given  in  his  "  Limits  of  E-eligious 
Thought."  And  I  gladly  do  this,  not  only  because  his  mode 
of  presentation  cannot  be  improved,  but  also  because,  writing 
as  he  does  in  defence  of  the  current  Theology,  his  reasonings 
wiU  be  the  more  acceptable  to  the  majority  of  readers. 

§  13.  Having  given  preliminary  definitions  of  the  First 
Cause,  of  the  Infinite,  and  of  the  Absolute,  Mr  Mansel  says : — 

"  But  these  three  conceptions,  the  Cause,  the  Absolute,  the 
Infinite,  all  equally  indispensable,  do  they  not  imply  contra- 
diction to  each  other,  when  Aiewed  in  conjimction,  as  attributes 
of  one  and  the  same  Being  ?  A  Cause  cannot,  as  such,  bo 
absolute :  the  Absolute  cannot,  as  such,  be  a  cause.  The  cause, 
as  such,  exists  only  in  relation  to  its  efiect :  the  cause  is  a 
cause  of  the  efiect ;  the  efiect  is  an  effect  of  the  cause.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  conception  of  the  Absolute  implies  a  possi- 
ble existence  out  of  all  relation.  "We  attempt  to  escape  from 
this  apparent  contradiction,  by  introducing  the  idea  of  succes- 
sion in  time.  The  Absolute  exists  first  by  itself,  and  after- 
wards becomes  a  Cause.  But  here  we  are  checked  by  the 
third  conception,  that  of  the  Infinite.  How  can  the  Infinite 
become  that  which  it  was  not  from  the  first  ?  If  Causation  ia 
a  possible  mode  of  existence,  that  which  exists  without  causing 
is  not  infinite  ;  that  which  becomes  a  cause  has  passed  beyond 
its  former  limits."         *         *         * 

"  Supposing  the  Absolute  to  become  a  cause,  it  will  foUow 


40  ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS. 

that  it  operates  by  means  of  freewill  and  consciousness.  For 
a  necessary  cause  cannot  be  conceived  as  absolute  and  infinite. 
If  necessitated  by  something  beyond  itself,  it  is  thereby  limit- 
ed by  a  superior  power ;  and  if  necessitated  by  itself,  it  has  in 
its  own  nature  a  necessary  relation  to  its  effect.  The  act  of 
causation  must  therefore  be  voluntary ;  and  volition  is  only 
possible  in  a  conscious  being.  But  consciousness  again  is 
only  conceivable  as  a  relation.  'There  must  be  a  conscious 
subject,  and  an  object  of  which  he  is  conscious.  The  subject 
is  a  subject  to  the  object ;  the  object  is  an  object  to  the  sub- 
ject ;  and  neither  can  exist  by  itself  as  the  absolute.  This 
difficulty,  again,  may  be  for  the  moment  evaded,  by  distin- 
guishiQg  between  the  absolute  as  related  to  another  and  the 
absolute  as  related  to  itself.  The  Absolute,  it  may  be  said, 
may  possibly  be  conscious,  provided  it  is  only  conscious  of  it- 
self. But  this  alternative  is,  in  ultimate  analysis,  no  less  self- 
destructive  than  the  other.  For  the  object  of  consciousness, 
whether  a  mode  of  the  subject's  existence  or  not,  is  either 
created  in  and  by  the  act  of  consciousness,  or  has  an  existence 
independent  of  it.  In  the  former  case,  the  object  depends 
upon  the  subject,  and  the  subject  alone  is  the  true  absolute. 
In  the  latter  case,  the  subject  depends  upon  the  object,  and 
the  object  alone  is  the  true  absolute.  Or  if  we  attempt  a  third 
hypothesis,  and  maintain  that  each  exists  independently  of  the 
other,  we  have  no  absolute  at  all,  but  only  a  pair  of  relatives ; 
for  coexistence,  whether  in  consciousness  or  not,  is  itself  a 
relation." 

"  The  corollary  from  this  reasoning  is  obvious.  Not  only 
is  the  Absolute,  as  conceived,  incapable  of  a  necessary  relation 
10  anythiQg  else;  but  it  is  also  incapable  of  containing,  by 
the  constitution  of  its  own  nature,  an  essential  relation  with- 
in itself ;  as  a  whole,  for  instance,  composed  of  parts,  or  as  a 
substance  consisting  of  attributes,  or  as  a  conscious  subject 
LQ  antithesis  to  an  object.  For  if  there  is  in  the  absolute  any 
principle  of  unity,  distinct  from  the  mere  accimiidation  of 
parts  or  attributes,  this  principle  alone  is  the  true  absolute. 


ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS   IDEAS.  41 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  such  principle,  then  there  is 
MO  absolute  at  all,  but  only  a  plurality  of  relatives.  The 
almost  unanimous  voice  of  philosophy,  in  pronouncing  that 
the  absolute  is  both  one  and  simple,  must  be  accepted  as  the 
voice  of  reason  also,  so  far  as  reason  has  any  voice  in  the 
matter.  But  this  absolute  unity,  as  indifferent  and  contain- 
ing no  attributes,  can  neither  be  distinguished  from  the  multi- 
plicity of  finite  beings  by  any  characteristic  feature,  nor  be 
identified  with  them  in  their  iliultiplicity.  Thus  we  are  land- 
ed in  an  inextricable  dilemma.  The  Absolute  cannot  be  con- 
ceived as  conscious,  neither  can  it  be  conceived  as  unconscious : 
it  cannot  be  conceived  as  complex,  neither  can  it  be  conceived 
as  simple :  it  cannot  be  conceived  by  difference,  neither  can  it 
be  conceived  by  the  absence  of  difference :  it  cannot  be  iden- 
tified with  the  universe,  neither  can  it  be  distinguished  from 
it.  The  One  and  the  Many,  regarded  as  the  beginning  of 
existence,  are  thus  alike  incomprehensible." 

"  The  fundamental  conceptions  of  Rational  Theology  being 
thus  self- destructive,  we  may  naturally  expect  to  find  the  same^ 
antagonism  manifested  in  their  special  applications.  *  *  * 
How,  for  example,  can  Infinite  Power  be  able  to  do  all  things, 
and  yet  Infinite  Goodness  be  unable  to  do  evil  ?  How  can  In- 
finite Justice  exact  the  utmost  penalty  for  every  sin,  and  yet 
Infinite  Mercy  pardon  the  sinner  ?  How  can  Infinite  Wisdom 
know  all  that  is  to  come,  and  yet  Infinite  Freedom  be  at  liberty 
to  do  or  to  forbear  ?  •  How  is  the  existence  of  Evil  compatible 
with  that  of  an  infinitely  perfect  Being ;  for  if  he  wills  it,  he 
is  not  infinitely  good ;  and  if  he  wiUs  it.  not,  his  will  is 
thwarted  and  his  sphere  of  action  limited  ?  "     *     *     * 

"  Let  us,  however,  suppose  for  an  instant  that  these  difficul- 
ties are  surmounted,  and  the  existence  of  the  Absolute  securely 
established  on  the  testimony  of  reason.  Still  we  have  not 
succeeded  in  reconciling  this  idea  with  that  of  a  Cause  :  we 
have  done  nothing  towards  explaining  how  the  absolute  can 
give  rise  to  the  relative,  the  infinite  to  the  finite.  If  the  con- 
dition of  causal  activity  is  a  higher  state  than  that  of  qui- 


45  ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS. 

escenoe,  tlie  Absolute,  wliether  acting. voluntarily  or  involun- 
tarily, has  passed  from  a  condition  of  comparative  imperfection 
to  one  of  comparative  perfection  ;  and  therefore  was  not 
originally  perfect.  If  the  state  of  activity  is  an  inferior  state 
to  that  o£  quiescence,  the  Absolute,  in  becoming  a  cause,  has 
lost  its  original  perfection.  There  remains  only  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  two  states  are  equal,  and  the  act  of  creation  one  of 
complete  indifference.  But  this  supposition  annihilates  the 
unity  of  the  absolute,  or  it  annihilates  itself.  If  the  act  of 
creation  is  real,  and  yet  indifferent,  we  must  admit  the  possi- 
bility of  two  conceptions  of  the  absolute,  the  one  as  productive, 
the  other  as  non-productive.  If  the  act  is  not  real,  the  sup- 
position itself  vanishes."     *     *     * 

"  Again,  how  can  the  relative  be  conceived  as  coming  into 
being  ?  If  it  is  a  distinct  reality  from  the  absolute,  it  must  be 
conceived  as  passing  from  non-existence  into  existence.'  But 
to  conceive  an  object  as  non-existent,  is  again  a  self-contradic- 
tion ;  for  that  which  is  conceived  exists,  as  an  object  of  thought, 
in  and  by  that  conception.  We  may  abstain  from  thinking  of 
an  object  at  all ;  but,  if  we  think  of  it,  we  cannot  but  think  of 
it  as  existing.  It  is  possible  at  one  time  not  to  thiuk  of  an 
object  at  all,  and  at  another  to  think  of  it  as  already  in  being ; 
but  to  think  of  it  in  the  act  of  becoming,  in  the  progress  from 
not  being  into  being,  is  to  think  that  which,  in  the  very 
thought,  annihilates  itself."  *  *  * 

,t  "To  sum  up  briefly  this  portion  of  my  argument.  The 
c  onception  of  the  Absolute  and  Infinite,  from  whatever  side  we 
view  it,  appears  encompassed  with  contradictions.  There  is 
a  contradiction  in  supposing  such  an  object  to  exist,  whether 
alone  or  in  conjunction  with  others  ;  and  there  is  a  contradic- 
tion in  supposing  it  not  to  exist.  There  is  a  contradiction  in 
conceiving  it  as  one ;  and  there  is  a  contradiction  in  conceiv- 
ing it  as  many.  There  is  a  contradiction  in  conceiving  it  as 
personal ;  and  there  is  a  contradiction  in  conceiving  it  as  im- 
personal. It  cannot,  without  contradiction,  be  rej)resented  as 
active ;  nor,  without  equal  contradiction,  be  represented  as 


ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS.  43 

Inactive.     It  cannot  be  conceived  as  the  sum  of  all  existence ; 
nor  yet  can  it  be  conceived  as  a  part  only  of  that  sum." 

§  14.  And  now  wbat  is  tbe  bearing  of  these  results  on  tlie 
question  before  us  ?  Our  examination  of  Ultimate  Keligious 
Ideas  has  been  carried  on  with  the  view  of  making  manifest 
some  fundamental  verity  contained  in  them.  Thus  far  how- 
ever we  have  arrived  at  negative  conclusions  only.  Criti- 
cising the  essential  conceptions  involved  in  the  different 
orders  of  beliefs,  we  find  no  one  of  them  to  be  logically 
defensible.  Passing  over  the  consideration  of  credibility,  and 
confining  ourselves  to  that  of  conceivability,  we  see  that 
Atheism,  Pantheism,  and  Theism,  when  rigorously  analysed, 
severally  prove  to  be  absolutely  unthinkable.  Instead  of 
disclosing  a  fundamental  verity  existing  in  each,  our  invest- 
igation seems  rather  to  have  shown  that  there  is  no  fund- 
amental verity  contained  in  any.  To  carry  away  this 
conclusion,  however,  would  be  a  fatal  error;  as  we  shaU 
shortly  see. 

Leaving  out  the  accompanying  moral  code,  which  is  in  aUJt  \ 
cases  a  supplementary  growthj  a  religious  creed  is  definable 
as  a  theory  of  original  causation.     By  the  lowest  savages  .  j 
the  genesis  of  things  is  not  inquired  about ;  anomalous  ap-  !  / 
2^earances  alone  raise  the  question  of  agency.     But  be  it  in 
the  primitive  Ghost- theory  which  assumes  a  human  person- 
ality behind  each  unusual  phenomenon ;  be  it  in  Polytheism, 
in  which  these  personalities  are  partially  generalized ;  be  it 
in  Monotheism,  in  which  they  are  wholly  generalized ;  or  be 
it  in  Pantheism,  in  which  the  generalized  personality  becomes 
one  with  the   phenomena;   we   equally  find  an  hypothesis 
which  is  supposed  to  render  the  Universe  comprehensible. 
Kay,  even  that  which  is  commonly  regarded  as  the  negation 
of  all  Religion  —  even  positive  Atheism,  comes  within  the 
definition;  for  it,  too,  in  asserting  the  self-existence  of  Space, 
Matter,  and  Motion,  which  it  regards  as  adequate  causes  of 
every  appearance,  propounds  an  d  priori  theory  from  which 


il  ULTIMATE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS. 

it  holds  the  facts  to  be  deducible.  Now  every  theory  tacitly 
■Asserts  two  things :  firstly,  that  there  is  something  to  be 
explained ;  secondly,  that  such  and  such  is  the  explanation. 
Hence,  however  widely  different  speculators  may  disagree  in 
the  solutions  they  give  of  the  same  problem ;  yet  by  implica- 
tion they  agree  that  there  is  a  problem  to  be  solved.  Hero 
then  is  an  element  which  all  creeds  have  in  common.  Reli- 
gions diametrically  opposed  in  their  overt  dogmas,  are 
yet  perfectly  at  one  in  the  tacit  conviction  that  the  exist- 
ence of  the  world  with  all  it  contains  and  all  which  surrounds 
it,  is  a  mystery  ever  pressing  for  interpretation.  On  this 
point,  if  on  no  other,  there  is  entire  unanimity. 

Thus  we  come  within  sight  of  that  which  we  seek.  In  the 
last  chapter,  reasons  were  given  for  inferring  that  human 
beliefs  in  general,  and  especially  the  perennial  ones,  contain, 
Under  whatever  disguises  of  error,  some  soul  of  truth;  and 
here  we  have  arrived  at  a  truth  underlying  even  the  grossest 
superstitions.  We  saw  further  that  this  soul  of  truth  was 
most  likely  to  be  some  constituent  common  to  conflicting 
opinions  of  the  same  order ;  and  here  we  have  a  constituent 
which  may  be  claimed  alilie  by  all  religions.  It  was  pointed 
out  that  this  soul  of  truth  would  almost  certainly  be  more 
abstract  than  anj'-  of  the  beliefs  involving  it ;  and  the  truth 
we  have  arrived  at  is  one  exceeding  in  abstractness  the  most 
abstract  religious  doctrines.  In  every  respect,  therefore,  our 
conclusion  answers  to  the  requirements.  It  has  all  the 
characteristics  which  we  inferred  must  belong  to  that  funda- 
mental verity  expressed  by  religions  in  general. 

That  this  is  the  vital  clement  in  all  religions  is  further 
proved  by  the  fact,  that  it  is  the  clement  which  not  only  survives 
every  change,  but  grows  more  distinct  the  more  highly  the 
religion  is  developed.  Aboriginal  creeds,  though  pervaded 
by  the  idea  of  personal  agencies  which  are  usually  unseen, 
yet  conceive  these  agencies  under  perfectly  concrete  and 
ordinary  forms — class  them  with  the  visible  agencies  of  men 
B.nd  animals  ;  and  so  hide  a  vague  perception  of  mystery  in 


ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS.  45 

iisguises  as  unmysterious  as  possible.  Tlie  Polytlieistic  con- 
ceptions in  their  advanced  phases,  represent  the  presiding 
personalities  in  greatly  idealized  shapes,  existing  in  a  remote 
region,  working  in  subtle  ways,  and  communicating  with  men 
by  omens  or  through  inspired  persons  ;  that  is,  the  ultimate 
causes  of  things  are  regarded  as  less  familiar  and  compre- 
hensible. The  growth  of  a  Monotheistic  faith,  accompanied 
as  it  is  by  a  denial  of  those  beliefs  in  which  the  divine  nature 
is  assimilated  to  the  human  in  all  its  lower  propensities,  shows 
us  a  further  step  in  the  same  direction  ;  and  however  imper- 
fectly this  higher  faith  is  at  first  realized,  we  yet  see  in  altars 
"  to  the  unknown  and  unknowable  God,"  and  in  the  worship 
of  a  God  that  cannot  by  any  searching  be  found  out,  that 
there  is  a  clearer  recognition  of  the  inscrutableness  of  creation. 
Further  developments  of  theology,  ending  in  such  assertions 
as  that  "  a^God  understood  would  be  no  God  at  all,"  and  "  to 
think  that  God  is,  as  we  can  think  him  to  be,  is  blasphemy," 
exhibit  this  recognition  still  more  distinctly  ;  and  it  pervades 
all  the  cultivated  theology  of  the  present  day.  Thus  while 
other  constituents  of  religious  creeds  one  by  one  drop  away, 
this  remains  and  grows  even  more  manifest ;  and  so  is  shown 
to  be  the  essential  constituent. 

Nor  does  the  evidence  end  here.  Not  only  is  the  omni- 
presence of  something  which  passes  comprehension,  that  most 
abstract  belief  which  is  common  to  all  religions,  which  be- 
comes the  more  distinct  in  proportion  as  they  develope,  and 
which  remains  after  their  discordant  elements  have  been 
mutually  cancelled ;  but  it  is  that  beKef  which  the  most  im- 
sparing  criticism  of  each  leaves  imquestionable — or  rather 
makes  ever  clearer.  It  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  most 
inexorable  logic  ;  but  on  the  contrary  is  a  belief  which  the 
most  inexorable  logic  shows  to  be  more  profoundly  true  than 
any  religion  supposes.  For  every  religion,  setting  out  though 
it  does  with  the  tacit  assertion  of  a  mystery,  forthwith  pro- 
ceeds to  give  some  solution  of  this  mystery ;  and  so  asserts 
that  it  is  not  a  mystery  passing  human  comprehension.     But 


iO  ULTIMATE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS. 

an  examination  of  the  solutions  they  severally  propound, 
shows  them  to  be  uniformly  invalid.  The  analysis  of  every 
possible  hypothesis  proves,  not  simply  that  no  hjrpothesis  is 
sufficient,  but  that  no  hjqDothesis  is  even  thinkable.  And 
thus  the  mystery  which  all  religions  recognize,  turns  out  to 
be  a  far  more  transcendent  mystery  than  any  of  them  suspect 
— ^not  a  relative,  but  an  absolute  mystery. 

Here,  then,  is  an  ultimate  religious  truth  of  the  highest 
possible  certainty — a  truth  in*  which  religions  in  general  are 
at  one  with  each  other,  and  with  a  philosophy  antagonistic 
to  their  special  dogmas.  And  this  truth,  respecting  which 
there  is  a  latent  agreement  among  all  mankind  from  the 
fetish- worshipper  to  the  most  stoical  critic  of  human  creeds, 
must  be  the  one  we  seek.  If  Beligion  and  Science  are  to  be 
reconciled,  the  basis  of  reconciliation  must  be  this  deepest, 
widest,  and  most  certain  of  all  facts — that  the  Ppwer  which 
the  Universe  manifests  to  us  is  utterly  inscrutable. 


CHAPTEll  III. 

ULTIMATE    SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS. 

§  15.  What  are  Space  and  Time  ?  Two  hypotheses  are 
current  respecting  them  :  the  one  that  they  are  objective,  and 
the  other  that  they  are  subjective — the  one  that  they  are 
external  to,  and  independent  of,  ourselves,  the  other  that 
they  are  internal,  and  appertain  to  our  own  consciousness. 
Let  us  see  what  becomes  of  these  hj-potheses  under  analysis. 

To  say  that  Space  and  Time  exist  objectively,  is  to  say  that 
they  are  entities.  The  assertion  that  they  are  non-entities  is 
self-destructive :  non-entities  are  non-existences;  and  to  allege 
that  non-existences  exist  objectively,  is  a  contradiction  in 
terms.  Moreover,  to  deny  that  Space  and  Time  are  things, 
and  so  by  implication  to  call  them  nothings,  involves  the 
absurdity  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  nothing.  Neither  can 
they  be  regarded  as  attributes  of  some  entity ;  seeing,  not 
only  that  it  is  impossible  really  to  conceive  any  entity  of 
which  they  are  attributes,  but  seeing  further  that  we  cannot 
think  of  them  as  disappearing,  even  if  everything  else  disap- 
peared ;  whereas  attributes  necessarily  disappear  along  with 
the  entities  they  belong  to.  Thus  as  Space  and  Time  cannot 
be  either  non-entities,  nor  the  attributes  of  entities,  "jjre  have 
I  no  choice  but  consider  them  as  entities.  But  while,  on 

I  the  hypothesis  of  their  objectivity.  Space  and  Time  must  be 
/  classed  as  tilings,  we  find,  on  experiment,  that  to  represent 
them  in  thought  as  things  is  impossible.     To  be  conceived 
at  all,  a  thing  must  be  conceived  as  having  attributes.     We 


V 


48  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS. 

can  distinguisli  sometliing  from  nothing,  only  by  tlie  power 
which  the  something  has  to  act  on  our  consciousness;  the 
several  affections  it  produces  on  our  consciousness  (or  else  the 
hypothetical  causes  of  them),  we  attribute  to  it,  and  call 
its  attributes;  and  the  absence  of  these  attributes  is  the 
absence  of  the  terms  in  which  the  something  is  conceived, 
and  involves  the  absence  of  a  conception.  What  now  are  the 
attributes  of  Space  ?  The  only  one  which  it  is  possible  for  a 
moment  to  think  of  as  belonging  to  it,  is  that  of  extension  ; 
and  to  credit  it  with  this  implies  a  confusion  of  thought. 
For  extension  and  Space  are  convertible  terms  :  by  extension, 
as  we  ascribe  it  to  surrounding  objects,  we  mean  occupancy 
of  Space ;  and  thus  to  say  that  Space  is  extended,  is  to  say 
that  Space  occupies  Space.  How  we  are  similarly  unable 
to  assign  any  attribute  to  Time,  scarcely  needs  pointing 
out.  Nor  are  Time  and  Space  imthinkable  as  entities 

only  from  the  absence  of  attributes  ;  there  is  another  peculi- 
arity, familiar  to  readers  of  metaphysics,  which  equally  ex- 
cludes them  from  the  category.  All  entities  which  we  actually 
know  as  such,  are  limited ;  and  even  if  we  suppose  ourselves 
either  to  know  or  to  be  able  to  conceive  some  unlimited 
entity,  we  of  necessity  in  so  classing  it  positively  separate  it 
from  the  class  of  limited  entities.  But  of  Space  and  Time 
we  cannot  assert  either  limitation  or  the  absence  of  limitation. 
"VVe  find  ourselves  totally  unable  to  form  any  mental  image  of 
unbounded  Space ;  and  yet  totally  unable  to  imagine  bounds 
beyond  which  there  is  no  Space.  Similarly  at  the  other 
extreme :  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  a  limit  to  the  divisi- 
bility of  Space ;  yet  equally  impossible  to  tnink  of  its  infinite 
divisibility.  And,  without  stating  them,  it  will  be  seen  that  wo 
labour  under  like  impotencies  in  respect  to  Time.  Thus 

we  cannot  conceive  Space  and  Time  as  entities,  and  are 
equally  disabled  from  conceiving  them  as  either  the  attributes 
of  entities  or  as  non-entities.  We  are  compelled  to  think^  oi 
them  as  existing ;  and  yet  cannot  bring  them  within  those 
conditions  under  which  existences  are  represented  in  thought. 


ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS.  49 

Shall  we  then  take  refuge  in  the  Kantian  doctrine  ?  shall 
we  say  that  Space  and  Time  are  forms  of  the  intellect, — "  d 
priori  laws  or  conditions  of  the  conscious  mind"  ?  To  do  this 
is  to  escape  from  great  difficulties  by  rushing  into  greater. 
The  proposition  ^vith.  which.  Kant's  philosophy  sets  out, 
verbally  intelligible  tliougb  it  is,  cannot  by  any  effort  bo 
rendered  into  thought — cannot  be  interpreted  into  an  idea 
properly  so  called,  but  stands  merely  for  a  pseud-idea.  In 

the  first  place,  to  assert  that  Space  and  Time,  as  we  are  con- 
scious of  them,  are  subjective  conditions,  is  by  implication 
to  assert  that  they  are  not  objective  realities :  if  the  Space 
and  Time  present  to  our  minds  belong  to  the  ego,  then  of 
neccessity  they  do  not  belong  to  the  non-ego.  Now  it  is  abso- 
lutely impossible  to  think  this.  The  very  fact* on  which 
Kant  bases  his  hypothesis — namely  that  our  consciousness  of 
Space  and  Time  cannot  be  suppressed — testifies  as  mucb  ;  for 
that  consciousness  of  Space  and  Time  which  we  cannot  rid 
ourselves  of,  is  the  consciousness  of  them  as  existing  ob- 
jectively. It  is  useless  to  reply  that  such  an  inability  must 
incA^tably  result  if  they  are  subjective  forms.  The  question 
here  is — ^What  does  consciousness  directly  testify  ?  And  the 
direct  testimony  of  consciousness  is,  that  Time  and  Space  are 
not  within  but  without  the  mind ;  and  so  absolutely  independ- 
ent of  it  that  they  cannot  be  conceived  to  become  non-existent 
even  were  the  mind  to  become  non-existent.  Besides 

being  positively  imthinkable  in  what  it  tacitly  denies, 
the  theory  of  Kant  is  equally  unthinkable  in  what  it  openly 
affiiTQS.  It  is  not  simply  that  we  cannot  combine  the  thought 
of  Space  with  the  thought  of  our  own  personality,  and  con- 
template the  one  as  a  property  of  the  other — though  our 
inability  to  do  this  would  prove  the  inconceivableness  of  the 
h3^othesis — but  it  is  that  the  hypothesis  carries  in  itself  the 
proof  of  its  own  inconceivableness.  For  if  Space  and  Time 
are  forms  of  thought,  they  can  never  be  thought  of;  since  it 
is  impossible  for  anything  to  be  at  once  the  form  of  thought 
and  the  matter  of  thought.     That  Space  and  Time  arc  ob- 


50  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC  IDEAS. 

jects  of  consciousness,  Kant  cmpliatically  asserts  by  sa\Hng 
that  it  is  impossible  to  suppress  tbe  consciousness  of  tbem. 
How  then,  if  they  arc  objects  of  consciousness,  can  they  at  the 
same  time  be  conditions  of  consciousness  ?  If  Space  and  Time 
are  the  conditions  under  which  we  think,  then  when  we  think 
of  Space  and  Time  themselves,  our  thoughts  must  be  uncon- 
ditioned ;  and  if  there  can  thus  be  unconditioned  thoughts, 
what  becomes  of  the  theory  ? 

It  results  therefore  that  Space  and  Time  are  wholly  in- 
comprehensible. The  immediate  knowledge  which  we  seem 
to  have  of  them,  proves,  when  examined,  to  be  total  ignor- 
ance. While  our  belief  in  their  objective  reality  is  in- 
surmountable, we  are  unable  to  give  any  rational  account 
of  it.  Arid  to  posit  the  alternative  belief  (possible  to  state 
but  impossible  to  realize)  is  merely  to  multiply  irrationali- 
ties. 

§  16.  Were  it  not  for  the  necessities  of  the  argimient,  it 
would  be  inexcusable  to  occupy  the  reader's  attention  with 
the  threadbare,  and  yet  unended,  controversy  respecting  the 
divisibility  of  matter.  Matter  is  either  infinitely  divisible  or 
it  is  not :  no  third  possibility  can  be  named.  Which  of  the 
alternatives  shall  we  accept  ?  If  "v^e  say  that  Matter  is  in- 
finitely divisible,  we  commit  ourselves  to  a  supposition  not 
realizable  in  thought.  We  can  bisect  and  re-bisect  a  body, 
and  continually  repeating  the  act  until  we  reduce  its  parts  to 
a  size  no  longer  physically  divisible,  may  then  mentally  con- 
tinue the  process  without  limit.  To  do  this,  however,  is  not 
really  to  conceive  the  infinite  divisibility  of  matter,  but  to  form 
a  s5rmbolic  conception  incapable  of  expansion  into  a  real  one, 
and  not  admitting  of  other  verification.  Really  to  conceive 
the  infinite  divisibility  of  matter,  is  mentally  to  follow  out  the 
divisions  to  infinity ;  and  to  do  this  would  rce][uire  infinite 
time.  On  the  other  hand,  to  assert  that  matter  is  not 
infinitely  divisible,  is  to  assert  that  it  is  reducible  to  parts 
which  no  conceivable  power  can  divide ;    and  thifl  verbal 


ULTIMATE    SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS.  51 

supposition  can  no  more  be  represented  in  thonglit  than  the 
other.  For  each  of  such  ultimate  parts,  did  they  exist,  must 
have  an  under  and  an  upper  surface,  a  right  and  a  left  side, 
like  any  larger  fragment.  Now  it  is  impossible  to  imagine 
its  sides  so  near  that  no  plane  of  section  can  be  conceived  be- 
tween them;  and  however  great  be  the  assumed  force  of 
cohesion,  it  is  impossible  to  shut  out  the  idea  of  a  greater 
force  capable  of  overcoming  it.  So  that  to  human  intelli- 
gence the  one  hypothesis  is  no  more  acceptable  than  the 
other ;  and  yet  the  conclusion  that  one  or  other  must  agree 
with  the  fact,  seems  to  human  intelligence  unavoidable. 

Again,  leaving  this  insoluble  question,  let  us  ask  whether 
substance  has,  in  reality,  anything  like  that  extended  solidity 
which  it  presents  to  our  consciousness.  The  portion  of  space 
occupied  by  a  piece  of  metal,  seems  to  eyes  and  fingers  per- 
fectly filled :  we  perceive  a  homogeneous,  resisting  mass, 
without  any  breach  of  continuity.  Shall  we  then  say  that 
Matter  is  as  actually  solid  as  it  appears  ?  Shall  we  say  that 
whether  it  consists  of  an  infinitely  divisible  element  or  of 
ultimate  units  incapable  of  further  division,  its  parts  are 
everywhere  in  actual  contact  ?  To  assert  as  much  entangles 
us  in  insuperable  difficulties.  Were  Matter  thus  absolutely 
solid,  it  would  be,  what  it  is  not — absolutely  incompressible  ; 
since  compressibility,  implying  the  nearer  approach  of  con- 
stituent parts,  is  not  thinkable  unless  there  is  unoccupied 
space  between  the  parts.  'Nov  is  this  all.  It  is  an  estab- 
b'shed  mechanical  truth,  that  if  a  body,  moving  at  a  given 
velocity,  strikes  an  equal  body  at  rest  in  such  wise  that  the 
two  move  on  together,  their  joint  velocity  will  be  but  half 
that  of*  the  striking  body.  Now  it  is  a  law  of  which  the 
negation  is  inconceivable,  that  in  passing  from  any  one 
degree  of  magnitude  to  any  other,  all  intermediate  degrees 
must  be  passed  through.  Or,  in  the  case  before  us,  a  body 
moving  at  velocity  4,  cannot,  by  collision,  be  reduced  to 
velocity  2,  without  passing  through  all  velocities  between  4 
and  2.     But  were  Matter  truly  ooUd — were  its  units  abso 


62  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS. 

lutely  incompressible  and  in  absolute  contact — this  "  law  0/ 
continuity,"  as  it  is  called,  would  be  broken  in  every  case 
of  collision.  For  when,  of  two  sucli  units,  one  moving  at 
velocity  4  strikes  another  at  rest,  tlie  striking  unit  must  have 
its  velocity  4  instantaneously  reduced  to  velocity  2;  must 
pass  from  velocity  4  to  velocity  2  without  any  lapse  of  time, 
and  without  passing  through  intermediate  velocities ;  must  be 
moving  with  velocities  4  and  2  at  the  same  instant,  which  is 
impossible. 

The  supposition  that  Matter  is  absolutely  solid  being 
untenable,  there  presents  itself  the  Newtonian  supposition, 
that  it  consists  of  solid  atoms  not  in  contact  but  acting  on 
each  other  by  attractive  and  repulsive  forces,  varying  with 
the  distances.  To  assume  this,  however,  merely  shifts  the 
difficulty  :  the  problem  is  simply  transferred  from  the  aggre- 
gated masses  of  matter  to  these  hypothetical  atoms.  Foi 
granting  that  Matter,  as  we  perceive  it,  is  made  up  of  such  dense 
extended  units  surrounded  by  atmospheres  of  force,  the 
question  still  arises — What  is  the  constitution  of  these  units  ? 
We  have  no  alternative  but  to  regard  each  of  them  as  a 
small  piece  of  matter.  Looked  at  through  a  mental  micro- 
scope, each  becomes  a  mass  of  substance  such  as  we  have  just 
been  contemplating.  Exactly  the  same  inquiries  may  be 
made  respecting  the  parts  of  which  each  atom  consists ;  while 
exactly  the  same  difficulties  stand  in  the  way  of  every  answer. 
And  manifestly,  even  were  the  hypothetical  atom  assumed  to 
consist  of  still  minute?  ones,  the  difficulty  would  re-appear  at 
tlie  next  step ;  nor  could  it  be  got  rid  of  even  by  an  infinite 
scries  of  such  assimaptions. 

Boscovich's  conception  yet  remains  to  us.  Seeing  that 
Matter  could  not,  as  Leibnitz  suggested,  be  composed  of  mi- 
oxtended  monads  (since  the  juxta-position  of  an  infinity  of 
points  having  no  extension,  could  not  produce  that  extension 
which,  matter  possesses) ;  and  perceiving  objections  to  the 
view  entertained  by  Newton ;  Boscovich  proposed  an  inter- 
mediate theory,  uniting,  as  he  considered,  the  advantages  of 


ULTIMATE    SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS.  t)ti 

both  and  avoiding  their  difficulties.  His  theory  is,  {hat  the 
constituents  of  Matter  are  centres  of  force — points  without 
dimensions,  which  attract  and  repel  each  other  in  such  wise  as 
to  be  kept  at  specific  distances  apart.  And  he  argues,  ma- 
thematically, that  the  forces  possessed  by  such  centres  might 
BO  vary  with  the  distances,  that  under  given  conditions  the 
centres  would  remain  in  stable  equilibrium  with  definite 
interspaces ;  and  yet,  under  other  conditions,  would  maintain 
larger  or  smaller  interspaces.  This  speculation  however, 
ingeniously  as  it  is  elaborated,  and  eluding  though  it  does 
various  difficulties,  posits  a  proposition  which  cannot  by  any 
effi)rt  be  represented  in  thought :  it  escapes  all  the  inconceiv- 
abilities above  indicated,  by  merging  them  in  the  one 
inconceivability  with  which  it  sets  out.  A  centre  of  force 
absolutely  without  extension  is  unthinkable :  answering  t(^ 
these  words  we  can  form  nothing  more  than  a  symbolic  con- 
ception of  the  illegitimate  order.  The  idea  of  resistance 
cannot  be  separated  in  thought  from  the  idea  of  an  extended 
body  which  ofiers  resistance.  To  suppose  that  central  forces 
can  reside  in  points  not  infinitesimally  small  but  occupying 
no  space  whatever — points  having  position  only,  with  nothing 
to  mark  their  position — points  in  no  respect  distinguishable 
from  the  surrounding  points  that  are  not  centres  of  force ; — to 
suppose  this,  is  utterly  beyond  human  power. 

Here  it  may  possibly  be  said,  that  though  all  hj^pothescs 
respecting  the  constitution  of  Matter  commit  us  to  inconceiv- 
able conclusions  when  logically  developed,  yet  we  have 
reason  to  think  that  one  of  them  corresponds  with  the  fact. 
Though  the  conception  of  Matter  as  consisting  of  dense  indi- 
visible units,  is  symbolic  and  incapable  of  being  completely 
thought  out,  it  may  yet  be  supposed  to  find  indirect  verifica- 
tion in  the  truths  of  chemistry.  These,  it  is  argued,  necessi- 
tate the  belief  that  Matter  consists  of  particles  of  specific 
weights,  and  therefore  of  specific  sizes.  The  general  law  of 
definite  proportions  seems  impossible  on  any  other  condition 
than  the  existence  of  ultimate  atoms ;  and  though  the  com- 
4 


54  ULTIMATE   SCTENTinC   n:>EAS. 

billing  weights  of  the  respective  elements  are  termed  by 
chemists  their  "'equivalents,"  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  a 
questionable  assumption,  we  are  unable  to  think  of  the  combina- 
tion of  such  definite  weights,  without  supposing  it  to  take 
place  between  definite  numbers  of  definite  particles.  And 
thus  it  would  appear  that  the  Newtonian  view  is  at  any  rate 
preferable  to  that  of  Boscovich.  A  disciple   of  Bosco- 

vich,  however,  may  reply  that  his  master's  theory  is  in- 
volved in  that  of  Newton;  and  cannot  indeed  be  escaped. 
"  What,"  he  may  ask,  "  is  it  that  holds  together  the  parts 
of  these  ultimate  atoms?"  "A  cohesive  force,"  his  oppo- 
nent must  answer.  "And  what,"  he  may  continue,  "is  it 
that  holds  together  the  parts  of  any  fragments  into 
which,  by  sufficient  force,  an  ultimate  atom  might  be 
Jbroken?"  Again  the  answer  must  be — a  cohesive  force. 
"  And  what,"  he  may  still  ask,  "  if  the  ultimate  atom  were, 
as  we  can  imagine  it  to  be,  reduced  to  parts  as  small  in  pro- 
portion to  it,  as  it  is  in  proportion  to  a  tangible  mass  of 
matter — what  must  give  each  part  the  ability  to  sustain  itself, 
and  to  occupy  space  ?  "  Still  there  is  no  answer  but — a  cohe- 
sive force.  Carry  the  process  in  thought  as  far  as  we  may, 
until  the  extension  of  the  parts  is  less  than  can  be  imagined, 
we  still  cannot  escape  the  admission  of  forces  by  which  the 
extension  is  upheld;  and  we  can  find  no  limit  until  we 
arrive  at  the  conception  of  centres  of  force  without  any 
L  extension. 

Matter  then,  in  its  ultimate  nature,  is  as  absolutely  incom- 
prehensible as  Space  and  Time.  Frame  what  suppositions  we 
may,  we  find  on  tracing  out  their  implications  that  they  leave 
us  nothing  but  a  choice  between  opposite  absurdities.     - 

§  17.  A  body  impelled  by  the  hand  is  clearly  perceived  to 
move,  and  to  move  in  a  definite  direction :  there  seems  ai  first 
sight  no  possibility  of  doubting  that  its  motion  is  real,  or  that 
it  is  towards  a  given  point.  Yet  it  is  easy  to  show  that  wo 
not  only  may  be,  but  usually  are,  quite  wrong  in  both  these 


ULTIMATE    SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS.  55 

judgments.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  sliip  which,  for  simpli- 
city's sake,  we  will  suppose  to  be  anchored  at  the  equate? 
with  her  head  to  the  "West.  When  the  captain  walks  from 
stem  to  stem,  in  what  direction  does  he  move  ?  East  is  the 
obvious  answer — an  answer  which  for  the  moment  may  pass 
without  criticism.  But  now  the  anchor  is  heaved,  and  the 
vessel  sails  to  the  West  with  a  velocity  equal  to  that  at  which 
the  captain  walks.  In  what  direction  does  he  now  move 
when  he  goes  from  stem  to  stern?  You  cannot  say  East,  for 
the  vessel  is  carrying  him  as  fast  towards  the  West  as  he 
walks  to  the  East ;  and  you  cannot  say  West  for  the  converse 
reason.  In  respect  to  surrounding  space  he  is  stationary ; 
though  to  all  on  board  the  ship  he  seems  to  be  moving.  But 
now  are  we  quite  sure  of  this  conclusion? — Is  he  really  station- 
ary ?  When  we  take  into  account  the  Earth's  motion  romid. 
its  axis,  we  find  that  instead  of  being  stationary  he  is  travel- 
ling at  the  rate  of  1000  miles  per  hour  to  the  East ;  so  that 
neither  the  perception  of  one  who  looks  at  him,  nor  the  infer- 
ence of  one  who  allows  for  the  ship's  motion,  is  anything  like 
the  truth.  Nor  indeed,  on  further  consideration,  shall  we  find 
this  revised  conclusion  to  be  much  better.  For  we  have  for- 
gotten to  allow  for  the  Earth's  motion  in  its  orbit.  This 
being  some  68,000  miles  per  hour,  it  follows  that,  assuming 
the  time  to  be  midday,  he  is  moving,  not  at  the  rate  of  1000 
miles  per  hour  to  the  East,  but  at  the  rate  of  67,000  miles  per 
hour  to  the  West.  Nay,  not  even  now  have  we  discovered 
the  true  rate  and  the  true  direction  of  his  movement.  With 
the  Earth's  progress  in  its  orbit,  we  have  to  join  that  of  the 
whole  Solar  system  towards  the  constellation  Hercules  ;  and 
when  we  do  this,  we  perceive  that  he  is  moving  neither  East 
nor  West,  but  in  a  line  inclined  to  the  plane  of  the  Ecliptic, 
and  at  a  velocity  greater  or  less  (according  to  the  time  of  the 
year)  than  that  above*  named.  To  which  let  us  add,  that 
were  the  dynamic  arrangements  of  our  sidereal  system  fully 
known  to  us,  we  should  j)robably  discover  the  direction  and 
rate  of  his  actual  movement  to  difier  considerably  even  from 


56  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS. 

these.  How  illusive  are  our  ideas  of  Motion,  is  tlius  made 

sufficiently  manifest.     That  wliicli  seems  moving  proves  to  be 
stationary  ;  that  which  seems  stationary  proves  to  be  moving; 
while  that  which  we  conclude  to   be  going  rapidly  in   one 
direction,  turns  out  to  be  going  much  more  rapidly  in  the 
opposite  direction.     And  so  we  are  taught  that  what  we  are 
conscious  of  is  not  the  real  motion  of  any  object,  either  in  its 
rate  or  direction ;  but  merely  its  motion  as  measured  from  an 
assigned  position — either  the  position  we  ourselves  occupy  or 
some  other.     Yet  in  this  very  process  of  concluding  that  the 
motions   we  perceive   are  not  the  real   motions,  we  tacitly 
assume  that  there  are  real  motions.      In  revising  our  success- 
ive judgments  concerning  a  body's  course  or  velocity,  we  take 
for   granted  that  there  is  an  actual    course  and   an  actual 
velocity — we  take  for  granted  that  there  are  fixed  points  in 
space  with  respect  to  which  all  motions  are  absolute ;  and  we 
find  it  impossible  to  rid  ourselves  of  this  idea.     Nevertheless, 
absolute  motion  cannot  even  be  imagined,  much  less  knoTVTi. 
Motion  as  taking  place  apart  from  those  limitations  of  space 
which  we  habitually  associate  with  it,  is  totally  imthinkable. 
For  motion  is  change  of  place ;  but  in  unlimited  space,  change 
of  place  is  inconceivable,  because  place  itself  is  inconceivable. 
Place  can  be  conceived  only  by  reference  to  other  places;  and 
m  the  absence  of  objects  dispersed   through  space,  a  place 
could  be  conceived  only  in  relation  to  the  limits  of  space ; 
whence  it  follows  that  in  unlimited  space,  place  cannot  be 
conceived — all  places  must  be  equidistant   from  boundaries 
r  that  do  not  exist.     Thus  while  we  are  obliged  to  think  that 
\  there  is  an  absolute  motion,  we  find  absolute  motion  incom- 
I  prehensible. 

Another  insuperable  difficulty  presents  itself  when  wo 
contemplate  the  transfer  of  Motion.  Habit  blinds  us  to  the 
marvelousness  of  this  phenomenon.  Familiar  with  the  fact 
from  childhood,  we  see  nothing  remarkable  in  the  ability  of  a 
moving  thing  to  generate  movement  in  a  thing  that  ia 
Btationaiy.     It  is,  however,  impossible  to  understand  it.     In 


•ULXIMATE    SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS.  57 

wliat  respect  does  a  body  after  impact  differ  from  itself  before 
impact  ?     Wliat  is  tbis  added  to  it  wbicb  does  not  sensibly 
affect   any   of  its  properties  and  yet  enables  it  to  traverse 
space  ?     Here  is  an  object  at  rest  and  here  is  the  same  object 
moving.     In  the  one  state  it  has  no  tendency  to  change  its 
place ;  but  in  the  other  it  is  obliged  at  each  instant  to  assume 
a  new  position.     What  is  it  which  will  for  ever  go  on  pro- 
ducing this  effect  without  being  exhausted  ?  and  how  does  it 
dwell  in  the  object?     The  motion  you  say  has   been  com- 
municated.    But  how  ?  —  "What  has  been  communicated  ? 
The  striking  body  has  not  transferred  a  thing  to  the  body 
struck ;  and  it  is  equally  out  of  the  question  to  say  that  it 
has  transferred  an  attribute.     What  then  has  it  transferred  ? 
Once  more  there  is  the  old  puzzle  concerning  the  connexion 
between  Motion  and  Rest.     We  daily  witness  the  gradual 
retardation  and  final  stoppage  of  things  projected  from  the 
hand  or  otherwise  impelled ;    and  we  equally  often  witness 
the  change  from  Rest  to  Motion  produced  by  the  application 
of  force.     But  truly  to  represent  these  transitions  in  thought, 
we  find  impossible.     For  a  breach  of  the  law  of  continuity 
seems  necessarily  involved;  and  yet  no  breach  of  it  is  con- 
ceivable.    A  body  travelling  at  a  given  velocity  cannot  be 
brought  to  a  state  of  rest,  or  no  velocity,  wdthout  passing 
through  all  intermediate  velocities.     At  first  sight  nothing 
seems  easier  than  to  imagine  it  doing  this.     It  is  quite  possi- 
ble  to  think  of  its  motion  as  diminishing  insensibly  until 
it  becomes  infinitesimal ;    and  many  will  think  equally  possi- 
ble  to    pass    in   thought   from    infinitesimal  motion   to  no 
motion.     But  this   is   an   error.     Mentally  follow   out  the 
decreasing   velocity  as   long   as  you  please,  and  there  still 
remains  some  velocity.     Halve  and  again  halve  the  rate  of 
movement  for  ever,  yet  movement  still  exists  ;  and  the  small- 
est movement  is  separated  by  an  impassable  gap  from  no 
movement.      As   something,   however   minute,   is   infinitely 
great  in  comparison  with  nothing ;  so  is  even  the  least  con- 
ceivable motion,   infinite  as  compared  with   rest.  The 


68  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS. 

converse  perplexities  attendant  on  the  transition  from  Eest  to 
Motion,  need  not  be  specified.  These,  equally  with  the  forego- 
ing, show  us  that  though  we-  are  obliged  to  think  of  such 
changes  as  actually  occurring,  their  occurrence  cannot  be 
realized. 

Thus  neither  when  considered  in  connexion  with  Space, 
nor  when  considered  in  connexion  with  Matter,  nor  when 
considered  in  connexion  with  Eest,  do  we  find  that  Motion  is 
truly  cognizable.  All  efibrts  to  understand  its  essential 
nature  do  but  bring  us  to  alternative  impossibilities  ol 
thought. 

§  18.  On  lifting  a  chair,  the  force  exerted  we  regard  as 
equal  to  that  antagonistic  force  called  the  weight  of  the 
chair  ;  and  we  cannot  think  of  these  as  equal  without  think- 
ing of  them  as  like  in  kind  ;  since  equality  is  conceivable  only 
between  things  that  are  connatural.  The  axiom  that  action 
and  reaction  are  equal  and  in  opposite  directions,  commonly 
exemplified  by  this  very  instance  of  muscular  efibrt  versus 
weight,  cannot  be  mentally  realized  on  any  other  condition. 
Yet,  contrariwise,  it  is  incredible  that  the  force  as  existing  in 
the  chair  really  resembles  the  force  as  present  to  our  minds. 
•  It  scarcely  needs  to  point  out  that  the  .weight  of  the  chair 
produces  in  us  various  feelings  according  as  we  support  it  by  a 
single  finger,  or  the  whole  hand,  or  the  leg ;  and  hence 
to  argue  that  as  it  cannot  be  like  all  these  sensations  there  is 
no  reason  to  believe  it  like  any.  It  suffices  to  remark  that 
since  the  force  as  known  to  us  is  an  afiection  of  consciousness, 
we  cannot  conceive  the  force  existing  in  the  chair  under  tjie 
same  form  without  endowing  the  chair  with  consciousness. 
So  that  it  is  absurd  to  think  of  Force  as  in  itself  like  our 
sensation  of  it,  and  yet  necessary  so  to  think  of  it  if  wo 
realize  it  in  consciousness  at  all. 

How,  again,  can  we  understand  the  connexion  between 
Force  and  Matter  ?  Matter  is  known  to  us  only  through  its 
manifestations  of  Force  :  our  ultimate  test  of  Matter  is  the 


TfLTlMATE   SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS.  *  59 

ability  to  resist :  abstract  its  resistance  and  tbere  remaina 
nothing  but  empty  extension.  Yet,  on  tlie  otber  band,  resist- 
ance is  equally  unthinkable  apart  from  Matter — apart  from 
something  extended.  Not  only,  as  pointed  out  some  pages 
back,  are  centres  of  force  devoid  of  extension  unimaginable  ; 
but,  as  an  inevitable  corollary,  we  cannot  imagine  either 
extended  or  unextended  centres  of  force  to  attract  and  repel 
other  such  centres  at  a  distance,  without  the  intermediation 
of  some  kind  of  matter.  We  have  here  to  remark,  what 
could  not  without  anticipation  be  remarked  when  treating  of 
Matter,  that  the  hj^othesis  of  Newton,  equally  with  that  of 
Boscovich,  is  open  to  the  charge  that  it  supposes  one  thing  to 
act  upon  another  through  a  space  which  is  absolutely  empty 
— a  supposition  which  cannot  be  represented  in  thought. 
This  charge  is  indeed  met  by  the  introduction  of  a  hypotheti- 
cal fluid  existing  between  the  atoms  or  centres.  But  the 
problem  is  not  thus  solved :  it  is  simply  shifted,  and  re- appears 
when  the  constitution  of  this  fluid  is  inquii'ed  into.  How 

impossible  it  is  to  elude  the  difficulty  presented  by  the  transfer 
of  Force  through  space,  is  best  seen  in  the  case  of  astronomical 
forces.  The  Sun  acts  upon  us  in  such  way  as  to  produce  the 
sensations  of  light  and  heat;  and  we  have  ascertained  that 
between  the  cause  as  existing  in  the  Sun,  and  the  efiect  as 
experienced  on  the  Earth,  a  lapse  of  about  eight  minutes 
occurs  :  whence  imavoidably  result  in  us,  the  conceptions  of 
both  a  force  and  a  motion.  So  that  for  the  assumption  of  a 
luminiferous  ether,  there  is  the  defence,  not  only  that  the 
exercise  of  force  through  95,000,000  of  miles  of  absolute 
vacuum  is  inconceivable,  but  also  that  it  is  impossible  to  con- 
ceive motion  in  the  absence  of  something  moved.  Similarly 
in  the  case  of  gravitation.  Newton  described  himself  as 
unable  to  think  that  the  attraction  of  one  body  for  another  at 
a  distance,  could  be  exerted  in  the  absence  of  an  intervening 
medium.  But  now  let  us  ask  how  much  the  forwarder  we 
are  if  an  intervening  medium  be  assumed.  This  ether  whose 
undulations  according  to  the  received  h^^othesis  constitute 


60  ULTIMATE    SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS. 

heat  and  light,  and  which  is  the  vehicle  of  gravitation — how 
is  it  constituted  ?  We  must  regard  it,  in  the  way  that  phy- 
sicists do  regard  it,  as  composed  of  atoms  which  attract  and 
repel  each  other — infinitesimal  it  may  be  in  comparison  with 
those  of  ordinary  matter,  but  still  atoms.  And  remcmbeiing 
that  this  ether  is  iniiponderable,  we  are  obliged  to  conclude 
that  the  ratio  between  the  interspaces  of  these  atoms  and  the 
atoms  themselves,  is  incommensurably  greater  than  the  like 
ratio  in  ponderable  matter ;  else  the  densities  could  not  bo 
incommensurable.  Instead  then  of  a  direct  action  by  the  Sun 
upon  the  Earth  without  anything  intervening,  we  have  to 
conceive  the  Sun's  action  propagated  through  a  medium 
whose  molecules  are  probably  as  small  relatively  to  their  inter- 
spaces as  are  the  Sun  and  Earth  compared  with  the  space 
between  them :  we  have  to  conceive  these  infinitesimal  mole- 
cules acting  on  each  other  through  absolutely  vacant  spaces 
which  are  immense  in  comparison  with  their  own  dimensions. 
How  is  this  conception  easier  than  the  other  ?  "We  still  have 
mentally  to  represent  a  body  as  acting  where  it  is  not,  and  ia 
the  absence  of  anything  by  which  its  action  may  be  transfer- 
red ;  and  what  matters  it  whether  this  takes  place  on  a  large 
or  a  small  scale  ?  We  see  therefore  that  the  exercise  of 

Force  is  altogether  unintelligible.  We  cannot  imagine  it 
except  through  the  instrumentality  of  something  having 
extension ;  and  yet  when  we  have  assumed  this  somethiag, 
we  find  the  perplexity  is  not  got  rid  of  but  only  postponed. 
We  are  obliged  to  conclude  that  matter,  whether  ponderable 
or  imponderable,  and  whether  aggregated  or  in  its  hypotheti  - 
cal  units,  acts  upon  matter  through  absolutely  vacant  space  ; 
and  yet  this  conclusion  is  positively  unthinkable. 

Yet  another  difficulty  of  conception,  converse  in  naturo 
but  equally  insurmountable,  must  be  added.  If,  on  the 
one  hand,  we  cannot  in  thought  see  matter  acting  upon 
matter  through  a  vast  interval  of  space  which  is  absolutely 
void ;  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  gravitation  of  one  particle 
of  matter  towards  another,  and  towards  all  others,  should 


ULllMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS.  61 

be  absolutely  tbe  same  wbetlier  tlie  intervening  space  is 
filled  with,  matter  or  not,  is  incomprebensible.  I  lift  from 
the  ground,  and  continue  to  hold,  a  pound  weight.  Now 
into  the  vacancy  between  it  and  tlie  ground,  is  in- 
troduced a  mass  of  matter  of  any  kind  wbatever,  in  any 
state  whatever — ^hot  or  cold,  liquid  or  solid,  transparent  or 
opaque,  light  or  dense ;  and  the  gravitation  of  the  weight 
is  entirely  unaffected.  The  whole  Earth,  as  well  as  eacli 
individual  of  the  infinity  of  particles  composing  the 
Earth,  acts  on  tlie  pound  in  absolutely  the  same  way, 
whatever  intervenes,  or  if  notbing  intervenes.  Through 
eight  thousand  miles  of  the  Earth's  substance,  eacb  mole- 
cule at  the  antipodes  affects  each  molecule  of  the  weight 
I  hold,  in  utter  indifference  to  the  fulness  or  emptiness 
of  the  space  between  them.  So  tbat  eacb  portion  of  matter 
in  its  dealings  witb  remote  portions,  treats  all  intervening 
portions  as  thougb  they  did  not  exist ;  and  yet,  at  the  -same 
time  it  recognizes  their  existence  with  scrupulous  exactness  . 
in  its  direct  dealings  witb  them.  We  bave  to  regard  gravi- 
tation as  a  force  to  which  everything  in  the  Universe  is 
at  once  perfectly  opaque  in  respect  of  itself  and  perfectly 
transparent  in  respect  o^  other  things. 

While  then  it  is  impossible  to  form  any  idea  of  Force 
in  itself,  it  is  equally  impossible  to  comprehend  its  mode 
of  exercise. 

§  19.  Turning  now  from  the  outer  to  the  inne^r  woild,  let 
us  contemplate,  not  the  agencies  to  which  we  ascribe  our 
subjective  modifications,  but  the  subjective  modifications 
themselves.  These  constitute  a  series.  Difficult  as  we  find 
it  distinctly  to  separate  and  individualize  them,  it  is  neverthe- 
less beyond  question  that  our  states  of  consciousness  occur  in 
succession. 

Is  this  chain  of  states  of  consciousness  infinite  or  finite  ? 
We  cannot  say  infinite ;  not  only  because  we  have  indirectly 
reached  the  conclusion  that  there  was  a  period  when  it  com- 


02  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS. 

menced,  but  also  because  all  infinity  is  inconceivable  —  an 
infinite  series  included.  We  cannot  say  finite  ;  for  wo  bave 
no  knowledge  of  eitber  of  its  ends.  Go  back  in  memory  as 
far  as  we  may,  we  are  wbolly  unable  to  identify  our  first 
states  of  consciousness :  the  perspective  of  our  tbougbts 
vanishes  in  a  dim  obscurity  wbere  we  can  make  out  notbing. 
Similarly  at  the  other  extreme.  "We  have  no  immediate 
knowledge  of  a  termination  to  the  series  at  a  future  time  ;  and 
we  cannot  really  lay  hold  of  that  temporary  termination  of 
the  series  reached  at  the  present  moment.  For  the  state  of 
consciousness  recognized  by  us  as  our  last,  is  not  truly  our 
last.  That  any  mental  afiection  may  be  contemplated  as  one 
of  the  series,  it  must  be  remembered — represented  in  thought, 
not  presented.  The  truly  last  state  of  consciousness  is  that 
which  is  passing  in  the  very  act  of  contemplating  a  state 
just  past — that  in  which  we  are  thinking  of  the  one  before  as 
the  last.  So  that  the  proximate  end  of  the  chain  eludes  us, 
as  well  as  the  remote  end. 

"But,"  it  may  be  said,  "though,  we  cannot  directly  know 
consciousness  to  be  finite  in  duration,  because  neither  of  its 
limits  can  be  actually  reached  ;  yet  we  can  very  well  conceive 
it  to  be  so."  No  :  not  even  this  is^  true.  In  the  first  place, 
we  cannot  conceive  the  terminations  of  that  consciousness 
\vhich  alone  we  really  know — our  own — any  more  than  we 
can  perceive  its  terminations.  For  in  truth  the  two  acts  are 
here  one.  In  either  case  such  terminations  must  be,  as  above 
said,  not  presented  in  thought,  but  represented;  and  they 
must  be  represented  as  in  the  act  of  occurring.  Now  to 
represent  the  termination  of  consciousness  as  occurring 
111  ourselves,  is  to  think  of  ourselves  as  contcmplatuig  the 
cessation  of  the  last  state  of  consciousness ;  and  this  implies 
a  supposed  continuance  of  consciousness  after  its  last 
slate,  which  is  absurd.  In  the  second  place,  if  we  regard 
tlie  matter  objectively  —  if  we  study  the  phenomena  as 
occurring  in  others,  or  in  the  abstract,  we  are  equally  foiled. 
Consciousness  implies  perpetual  change   and  the  perpetual 


ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS.  63 

establisliment  of  relations  between  its  successive  pliases.  To 
be  kno^vn  at  all,  any  mental  affection  must  be  known  as  sucb  or 
such. — as  like  these  foregoing  ones  or  unlike  those  :  if  it  is  not 
thought  of  in  connexion  with  others — not  distinguished  or 
identified  by  comparison  with  others,  it  is  not  recognized — is 
not  a  state  of  consciousness  at  all.  A  last  state  of  conscious- , 
ness,  then,  like  any  other,  can  exist  only  through  a  percep- 
tion of  its  relations  to  previous  states.  "  But  such  perception  of 
its  relations  must  constitute  a  state  later  than  the  last,  which 
is  a  contradiction.  Or  to  put  the  difficulty  in  another  form : — 
If  ceaseless  change  of  state  is  the  condition  on  which  alone 
consciousness  exists,  then  when  the  supposed  last  state 
has  been  reached  by  the  completion  of  the  preceding  change, 
change  has  ceased  ;  therefore  consciousness  has  ceased ;  there- 
fore the  supposed  last  state  is  not  a  state  of  consciousness  at 
all ;  therefore  there  can  be  no  last  state  of  consciousness.  In 
short,  the  perplexity  is  like  that  presented  by  the  relations  of 
Motion  and  Rest.  As  we  found  it  was  impossible  really  to 
conceive  Rest  becoming  Motion  or  Motion  becoming  Rest ;  so 
here  we  find  it  is  impossible  really  to  conceive  either  the 
beginning  or  the  ending  of  those  changes  wliich  constitute 
consciousness. 

Hence,  while  we  are  unable  either  to  believe  or  to  conceive 
that  the  duration  of  consciousness  is  infinite,  we  are  equally 
unable  either  to  know  it  as  finite,  or  to  conceive  it  as  finite. 

§  20.  Nor  do  we  meet  with  any  greater  success  when,  in- 
stead of  the  extent  of  consciousness,  we  consider  its  substance. 
The  question — What  is  this  that  thinks  ?  admits  of  no  better 
solution  than  the  question  to  which  we  have  just  found  none 
but  inconceivable  answers. 

The  existence  of  each  indi^ddual  as  kno^vn  to  himself,  has 
been  always  held  by  mankind  at  large,  the  most  incontro- 
vertible of  truths.  To  say — "  I  am  as  sure  of  it  as  I  am  sure 
that  I  exist,"  is,  in  common  speech,  the  most  emphatic  ex- 
pression of  certainty.     And  this  fact  of  personal  existence, 


64  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS. 

testified  to  by  the  universal  consciousness  of  men,  has  been 
made  the  basis  of  sundry  philosophies  ;  whence  may  be  drawn 
the  inference,  that  it  is  held  by  thinkers,  as  well  as  by  the 
vulgar,  to  be  beyond  all  facts  unquestionable. 

Belief  in  the  reality  of  self,  is,  indeed,  a  belief  which  no 
hypothesis  enables  us  to  escape.  What  shall  we  say  of  these 
successive  impressions  and  ideas  which  constitute  conscious- 
ness ?  Shall  we  say  that  they  are  the  affections  of  something 
called  mind,  which,  as  being  the  subject  of  them,  is  the  real 
ego  ?  If  we  say  this,  we  manifestly  imply  that  the  ego  is  an 
entity.  Shall  we  assert  that  these  impressions  and  ideas  are  not 
the  mere  superficial  changes  wrought  on  some  thinking  sub- 
stance, but  are  themselves  the  very  body  of  this  substance — 
are  severally  the  modified  forms  which  it  from  moment  to 
moment  assumes  ?  This  hypothesis,  equally  with  the  fore- 
going, implies  that  the  individual  exists  as  a  permanent  and 
distinct  being ;  since  modifications  necessarily  involve  some- 
thing modified.  Shall  we  then  betake  ourselves  to  the  sceptic's 
position,  and  argue  that  we  know  nothing  more  than  our  im- 
pressions and  ideas  themselves — that  these  are  to  us  the  only 
existences  ;  and  that  the  personality  said  to  underlie  them  is  a 
mere  fiction  ?  We  do  not  even  thus  escape  ;  since  this  pro- 
position, verbally  intelligible  but  really  unthinkable,  itself 
makes  the  assumption  which  it  professes  to  repudiate.  For 
how  can  consciousness  be  wholly  resolved  into  impressions  and 
ideas,  when  an  impression  of  necessity  implies  something  im- 
pressed ?  Or  again,  how  can  the  sceptic  who  has  decomposed 
his  consciousness  into  impressions  and  ideas,  explain  the  fact 
that  he  considers  them  as  Ids  impressions  and  ideas  ?  Or 
once  more,  if,  as  he  must,  he  admits  that  he  has  an  impression 
of  his  personal  existence,  what  warrant  can  he  show  for  re- 
jecting this  impression  as  unreal  while  he  accepts  all  his  other 
impressions  as  real  ?  Unless  he  can  give  satisfactory  answers 
to  these  queries,  which  he  cannot,  he  must  abandon  his  con- 
clusions ;  and  must  admit  the  reality  of  the  individual  mind. 

But  now,  imavoidable  as  is  this  belief — established  though 


ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC    IDEAS.  66 

it  is  not  only  by  the  assent  of  mankind  at  large,  endorsed  by 
divers  piiilosopbers,  but  by  the  suicide  of  the  sceptical  argu- 
ment— it  is  yet  a  belief  admitting  of  no  justification  by  reason : 
nay,  indeed,  it  is  a  belief  which  reason,  when  pressed  for  a 
distinct  answer,  rejects.  One  of  the  most  recent  writers  who 
has  touched  upon  this  question — Mr  Mansel — does  indeed 
contend  that  in  the  consciousness  of  self,  we  have  a  piece  of 
real  knowledge.  The  validity  of  immediate  intuition  ho 
holds  in  this  case  imquestionable  :  remarking  that  "let 
system-makers  say  what  they  will,  the  unsophi-sticated  sense 
of  mankind  refuses  to  acknowledge  that  mind  is  but  a  bundle 
of  states  of  consciousness,  as  matter  is  (possibly),  a  bundle  of 
sensible  qualities."  On  which  position  the  obvious  cominen^ 
is,  that  it  does  not  seem  altogether  a  consistent  one  for  a 
Kantist,  who  pays  but  small  respect  to  "  the  unsophisticated 
sense  of  mankind"  when  it  testifies  to  the  objectivity  of  space. 
Passing  over  this,  however,  it  may  readily  be  shown  that  a 
cognition  of  self,  properly  so  called,  is  absolutely  negatived 
by  the  laws  of  thought.  The  fundamental  condition  to  all 
consciousness,  emphatically  insisted  upon  by  Mr  Mansel  in 
common  with  Sir  William  Hamilton  and  others,  is  the  anti- 
thesis of  subject  and  object.  And  on  this  "  primitive  dualism 
of  consciousness,"  "  from  which  the  explanations  of  philosophy 
must  take  their  start,"  Mr  Mansel  founds  his  refutation  of  the 
German  absolutists.  But  now,  what  is  the  coroUary  from  this 
doctrine,  as  bearing  on  the  consciousness  of  self?  The  mental 
act  in  which  self  is  known,  implies,  like  every  other  mental 
act,  a  perceiving  subject  and  a  perceived  object.  If,  then,  the 
object  perceived  is  self,  what  is  the  subject  that  perceives  ?  or 
if  it  is  the  true  self  which  thinks,  what  other  self  can  it  be 
that  is  thought  of  ?  Clearly,  a  true  cognition  of  self  implies 
a  state  in  which  the  knowing  and  the  known  are  one — in 
which  subject  and  object  are  identified  ;  and  this  Mr  Mansel 
rightly  holds  to  be  the  annihilation  of  both. 

So  that  the  personality  of  which  each  is  conscious,  and  of 
Tvhich  the  existence  is  to  each  a  fact  beyond  all  others  the  most 


00  ULTIMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS. 

cei'tain,  is  yet  a  thing  wliicli  cannot  truly  be  known  at  all : 
knowledge  of  it  is  forbidden  by  the  very  nature  of  thought. 

§  21.  TJltimato  Scientific  Ideas,  then,  are  all  representative 
of  realities  that  cannot  be  comprehended.  After  no  matter 
how  great  a  progress  in  the  colligation  of  facts  and  the  estab- 
Uslmient  of  generalizations  ever  wider  and  wider — after  the 
merging  of  limited  and  derivative  truths  in  truths  that  are 
larger  and  deeper  has  been  carried  no  matter  how  far ;  the 
fundamental  truth  remains  as  much  beyond  reach  as  ever.  The 
explanation  of  that  which  is  explicable,  does  but  bring  out 
into  greater  .clearness  the  inexplicableness  of  that  which  re- 
mains behind.  Alike  in  the  external  and  the  internal  worlds, 
the  man  of  science  sees  himself  in  the  midst  of  perpetual  changes 
of  which  he  can  discover  neither  the  beginning  nor  the  end. 
If,  tracing  back  the  evolution  of  things,  he  allows  himself  to 
entertain  the  hypothesis  that  the  Universe  once  existed  in  a 
diffused  form,  he  finds  it  utterly  impossible  to  conceive  how 
this  came  to  be  so ;  and  equally,  if  he  speculates  on  the 
future,,  he  can  assign  no  limit  to  the  grand  succession  of  phe- 
nomena ever  unfolding  themselves  before  him.  In  like 
manner  if  he  looks  inward,  he  perceives  that  both  ends  of  the 
thread  of  consciousness  are  beyond  his  grasp;  nay,  even 
bej^ond  his  power  to  think  of  as  having  existed  or  as  existiag 
in  time  to  come.  When,  again,  he  turns  from  the  succession  of 
phenomena,  external  or  internal,  to  their  intrinsic  nature,  he 
is  just  as  much  at  fault.  Supposing  him  in  every  case  able  to 
resolve  the  appearances,  properties,  and  movements  of  things, 
into  manifestations  of  Force  in  Space  and  Time ;  he  still  finds 
that  Force,  Space,  and  Time  pass  all  understanding.  Simi- 
larly, though  the  analysis  of  mental  actions  may  finally  bring 
him  down  to  sensations,  as  the  original  materials  out  of  which 
all  thought  is  woven,  yet  he  is  little  forwarder ;  for  he  can 
give  no  account  either  of  sensations  themselves  or  of  that 
something  which  is  conscious  of  sensations.  Objective  and 
Bubjective  things  he  thus  ascertains  to  be  aHke  inscrutable  in 


UMTMATE   SCIENTIFIC   IDEAS.  67 

tlicir  substance  and  genesis.  In  all  directions  his  investiga- 
tions eventually  bring  him  face  to  face  with  an  insoluble 
enigma;  and  he  ever  more  clearly  perceives  it  to  be  an  insoluble 
enigma.  He  learns  at  once  the  greatness  and  the  littleness  of 
the  human  intellect — its  power  in  dealing  with  all  that  comes 
within  the  range  of  experience ;  its  imjp)otence  in  dealing 
with  all  that  transcends  experience.  He  realizes  with  a 
special  vividness  the  utter  incomprehensibleness  of  the  simplest 
fact,  considered  in  itself.  lie,  more  than  any  other,  truly 
knaws  that  in  its  ultimate  essence  nothing  can  be  ioio^vn. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TUB   RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE. 

§  22.  The  same  conclusion  is  thus  arrived  at,  from  which- 
ever point  we  set  out.  If,  respecting  the  origin  and  nature 
of  things,  we  make  some  assumption,  we  find  that  through  an 
inexorable  logic  it  inevitably  commits  us  to  alternative  impos- 
sibilities of  thought ;  and  this  holds  true  of  every  assumption 
that  can  be  imagined.  If,  contrariwise,  we  make  no  assump- 
tion, but  set  out  from  the  sensible  properties  of  surrounding 
objects,  and,  ascertaining  their  special  laws  of  dependence,  go 
on  to  merge  these  in  laws  more  and  more  general,  until  wo 
bring  them  all  under  some  most  general  laws ;  we  still  find  our- 
selves as  far  as  ever  from  knowing  what  it  is  w^hich  manifests 
these  properties  to  us :  clearly  as  we  seem  to  know  it,  our 
apparent  knowledge  proves  on  examination  to  be  utterly  irre- 
concilable with  itself.  Ultimate  religious  ideas  and  ultimate 
scientific  ideas,  alike  turn  out  to  be  merely  symbols  of  the 
actual,  not  cognitions  of  it.  . 

The  conviction,  so  reached,  that  human  intelligence  is 
incapable  of  absolute  knowledge,  is  one  that  has  been  slowly 
gaining  ground  as  civiKz  tion  has  advanced.  Each  new 
ontological  theory,  from  time  to  time  propounded  in  lieu  of 
previous  ones  shown  to  be  untenable,  has  been  followed  by  a 
new  criticism  leading  to  a  new  scepticism.  All  possible  con- 
ceptions have  been  one  by  one  tried  and  found  wanting ;   and 


THE    RELATmiT   OF   AI.L   KNOWLEDGE  09 

60  tlie  entire  field  of  speculation  has  been  gradually  exhausted 
without  positive  result:  the  only  result  arrived  at  being 
the  negative  one  above  stated  —  that  the  reality  existing 
behind  all  appearances  is,  and  must  ever  be,  unknown.  To 
this  conclusion  almost  every  thinker  of  note  has  subscribed. 
"  With  the  exception,"  says  Sir  William  Hamilton,  "of  a  few 
late  Absolutist  theorisers  in  Germany,  this  is,  perhaps,  tho 
truth  of  all  others  most  harmoniously  re-echoed  by  every 
philosopher  of  every  school."  And  among  these  he  names — 
Protagoras,  Aristotle,  St.  Augustin,  Boethius,  Averroes, 
Albertus  Magnus,  Gerson,  Leo  Hebraeus,  Melancthon,  Sca- 
liger,  Francis  Piccolomini,  Giordano  Bruno,  Campanella, 
Bacon,  Spinoza,  Newton,  Kant. 

It  yet  remains  to  point  out  how  this  belief  may  be  estab- 
lished rationally,  as  well  as  empirically.  IsTot  only  is  it  that, 
as  in  the  earlier  thinkers  above  named,  a  vague  perception  of 
the  inscrutablehess  of  things  in  themselves  results  from  dis- 
covering the  illusiveness  of  sense-impressions ;  and  not  only 
is  it  that,  as  shown  in  the  foregoing  chapters,  definite  experi- 
ments evolve  altemati^re  impossibilities  of  thought  out  of 
every  ultimate  conception  we  can  frame ;  but  it  is  that  the 
relativity  of  our  knowledge  is  demonstrable  analytically. 
The  induction  drawn  from  general  and  special  experiences, 
may  be  confirmed  by  a  deduction  from  the  nature  of  our 
intelligence.  Two  ways  of  reaching  such  a  deduction  exist. 
Proof  that  our  cognitions  are  not,  and  never  can  be,  absolute, 
is  obtainable  by  analyzing  either  the  product  of  thought,  or 
the  process  of  thought.     Let  us  analyze  each. 

§  23.  If,  when  walking  through  the  fields  some  day  in 
September,  you  hear  a  rustle  a  few  yards  in  advance,  and 
v)n  observing  the  ditch- side  where  it  occurs,  see  the  herbage 
agitated,  you  will  probably  turn  towards  the  spot  to  learn  by 
what  this  sound  and  motion  are  produced.  As  you  approach 
there  flutters  into  the  ditch,  «a  partridge ;  on  seeing  which 


70  THE   RELATIVITY   OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE. 

your  curiosity  is  satisfied — you  have  what  you  call  an  explan* 
ation  of  tlie  appearances.  The  explanation,  mark,  amounta 
to  this  ;  that  whereas  throughout  life  you  have  had  countless 
experiences  of  disturbance  among  small  stationary  bodies, 
accompanying  the  movement  of  other  bodies  among  them, 
and  have  generalized  the  relation  between  such  disturbances' 
and  such  movements,  you  consider  this  particular  disturbance 
explained,  on  finding  it  to  present,  an  instance  of  the  like 
relation.  Suppose  you  catch  the  partridge  ;  and,  wish- 

ing to  ascertain  why  it  did  not  escape,  examine  it,  and  find 
at  one  spot,  a  slight  trace  of  blood  upon  its  feathers.  You 
now  understand,  as  you  say,  what  has  disabled  the  partridge. 
It  has  been  wounded  by  a  sportsman — adds  another  case  to 
the  many  cases  already  seen  by  you,  of  birds  being  killed  or 
injured  by  the  shot  discharged  at  them  from  fowling-pieces. 
And  in  assimilating  this  case  to  other  such  cases,  consists 
your  understanding  of  it.  But  now,  on  consideration,  a 

difiiculty  suggests  itself.  Only  a  single  shot  has  struck  the 
partridge,  and  that  not  in  a  vital  place  :  the  wings  are  unin- 
jured, as  are  also  those  muscles  which  move  them ;  and  the 
creature  proves  by  its  struggles  that  it  has  abundant  strength. 
Why  then,  you  inquire  of  yourself,  does  it  not  fly  ?  Occasion 
favouring,  you  put  the  question  to  an  anatomist,  who  fur- 
nishes you  with  a  solution.  He  points  out  that  this  solitary 
shot  has  passed  close  to  the  place  at  which  the  nerve  supplying 
the  wing- muscles  of  one  side,  diverges  from  the  spine ;  and  that 
a  slight  injury  to  this  nerve,  extending  even  to  the  rupture  of 
a  few  fi-bres,  may,  by  preventing  a  perfect  co-ordination  in  tho 
actions  of  the  two  wings,  destroy  the  power  of  flight.  You  are 
no  longer  puzzled.  But  what  has  happened? — ^what  has 
changed  your  state  from  one  of  perplexity  to  one  of  compre^ 
hension  ?  Simply  the  disclosure  of  a  class  of  previously 
known  cases,  along  with  which  you  can  include  this  case. 
The  connexion  between  lesions  of  the  nervous  system  and 
paralysis  of  limbs  has  been  .already  many  times  brought 


THE    RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  71 

under  your  notice  ;  and  you  here  find  a  relation  of  cause  and 
effect  that  is  essentially  similar. 

Let  us  suppose  you  are  led  on  to  make  further  inquiries 
concerning  organic  actions,  which,  conspicuous  and  remarkable 
as  they  are,  you  had  not  before  cared  to  understand.  How 
is  respiration  effected?  you  ask — why  does  air  periodically 
rush  into  the  lungs  ?  The  answer  is  that  in  the  higher  verte- 
brata,  as  in  ourselves,  influx  of  air  is  caused  by  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  thoracic  cavity,  due,  partly  to  depression  of  the 
diaphragm,  partly  to  elevation  of  the  ribs.  But  how  does 
elevation  of  the  ribs  enlarge  the  cavity?  In  reply  the 
anatomist  shows  you  that  the  plane  of  each  pair  of  ribs 
makes  an  acute  angle  with  the  spine ;  that  this  angle  widens 
when  the  moveable  ends  of  the  ribs  are  raised  ;  and  he  makes 
you  realize  the  consequent  dilatation  of  the  cavity,  by  point- 
ing out  how  the  area  of  a  parallelogram  increases  as  its  angles 
approach  to  right  angles — you  understand  this  special  fact 
when  you  see  it  to  be  an  instance  of  a  general  geometrical 
fact.  There  still  arises,  however,  the  question — why  does  the 
air  rush  into  this  enlarged  cavity  ?  To  which  comes  the 
answer  that,  when  the  thoracic  cavity  is  enlarged,  the  con- 
tained air,  partially  relieved  from  pressure,  expands,  and  so  loses 
some  of  its  resisting  power ;  that  hence  it  opposes  to  the  pres- 
sure of  the  external  air  a  less  pressure  ;  and  that  as  air,  like 
every  other  fluid,  presses  equally  in  all  directions,  motion  must 
result  along  any  line  in  which  the  resistance  is  less  than 
elsewhere;  whence  follows  an  inward  current.  And  this 
interpretation  you  recognize  as  one,  when  a  few  facts  of  like 
kind,  exhibited  more  plainly  in  a  visible  fluid  such  as  water, 
are  cited  in  illustration.  Again,  when  it  was  pointed  out 

that  the  limbs  are  compound  levers  acting  in  essentially  the 
same  way  as  levers  of  iron  or  wood,  you  might  consider  your- 
self as  having  obtained  a  partial  rationale  of  animal  move- 
ments. The  contraction  of  a  muscle,  seeming  before  utterly 
unaccountable,  would  seem  less  unaccountable  were  you  shown 


72  THE   RELATIVITY   OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE. 

how,  by  a  galvanic  current,  a  series  of  soft  iron  magnets  could 
be  made  to  shorten  itself,  tbrougb.  the  attraction  of  each 
magnet  for  its  neighbours : — an  alleged  analogy  which 
especially  answ^ers  the  purpose  of  our  argument  ;  since^ 
whether  real  or  fancied,  it  equally  illustrates  the  mental 
illumination  that  results  on  finding  a  class  of  cases  within 
which  a  particular  case  may  possibly  be  included.  And  it 
may  be  further  noted  how,  in  the  instance  here  named,  an  ad- 
ditional feeling  of  comprehension  arises  oil  remembering  that 
the  influence  conveyed  through  the  nerves  to  the  muscles,  is, 
though  not  positively  electric,  yet  a  form  of  force  nearly 
allied  to  the  electric.  Similarly  when  you  learn  that 

animal  heat  arises  from  chemical  combination,  and  so  is 
evolved  as  heat  is  evolved  in  other  chemical  combinations— 
when  you  learn  that  the  absorption  of  nutrient  fluids  through 
the  coats  of  the  intestines,  is  an  instance  of  osmotic  action — 
when  you  learn  that  the  changes  undergone  by  food  during 
digestion,  are  like  changes  artificially  producible  in  the  labora- 
tory ;  you  regard  yourself  as  knoivmg  something  about  the 
natures  of  these  phenomena. 

Observe  now  what  we  have  been  doing.  Turning  to  tho 
general  question,  let  us  note  where  these  successive  interpret- 
ations have  carried  us.  We  began  with  quite  special  and 
concrete  facts.  In  explaining  each,  and  afterwards  explain- 
ing the  more  general  facts  of  which  they  are  instances,  we 
have  got  down  to  certain  highly  general  facts : — to  a  geome- 
trical principle  or  property  of  space,  to  a  simple  law  of  me- 
chanical action,  to  a  law  of  fluid  equilibrium — to  truths  in 
physics,  in  chemistry,  in  thermology,  in  electricity.  The 
particular  phenomena  with  which  we  set  out,  have  beeA 
merged  in  larger  and  larger  groups  of  phenomena ;  and  as 
they  have  been  so  merged,  we  have  arrived  at  solutions  that 
we  consider  profound  in  proportion  as  this  process  has  been 
carried  far.  Still  deeper  explanations  are  simply  further 
steps  in  the  same  direction.     When,  for  instance,  it  is  asked 


ITJE    RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  78 

why  the  law  of  action  of  tlie  lever  is  what  it  is,  or  why  fluid 
equilibrium  and  fluid  motion  exhibit  the  relations  which  they 
do,  the  answer  furnished  by  mathematicians  consists  in  the 
disclosure  of  the  principle  of  virtual  velocities — a  principle 
holding  true  alike  in  fluids  and  solids — a  principle  under 
which  the  others  are  comprehended.  And  similarly,  the  in- 
sight obtained  into  the  phenomena  of  chemical  combination, 
heat,  electricity,  «S;c.,  implies  that  a  rationale  of  them,  when 
found,  will  be  the  exposition  of  some  highly  general  fact  re- 
specting the  constitutio^L  of  matter,  of  which  chemical, 
electrical,  and  thermal  facts,  are  merely  difierent  mani- 
festations. 

Is  this  process  limited  or  nnliioited  ?  Can  we  go  on  fox 
ever  explaining  classes  of  facts  by  including  them  in  larger 
classes ;  or  must  we  eventually  come  to  a  largest  class  ?  The 
supposition  that  the  process  is  unlimited,  were  any  one  ab- 
surd enough  to  espouse  it,  would  still  imply  that  an  ultimate 
explanation  could  not  be  reached ;  since  infinite  time  would 
be  required  to  reach  it.  "While  the  unavoidable  conclusion 
that  it  is  limited  (proved  not  only  by  the  finite  sphere  of 
observation  open  to  us,  but  also  by  the  diminution  in  the 
number  of  generalizations  that  necessarily  accompanies  in- 
crease of  their  breadth)  equally  implies  that  the  ultimate 
fact  cannot  be  understood.  For  if  the  successively  deeper  in- 
terpretations of  nature  which  constitute  advancing  knowledge, 
are  merely  successive  inclusions  of  special  truths  in  general 
truths,  and  of  general  truths  in  truths  still  more  general ;  it 
obviously  follows  that  the  most  general  truth,  not  admitting 
of  inclusion  in  any  other,  does  no  admit  of  interpretation. 
Manifestly,  as  the  most  general  cognition  at  which  we  arrive ' 
cannot  be  reduced  to  a  7noye  general  one,  it  cannot  be  under- 
etood.  Of  necessity,  therefore,  explanation  must  eventually 
bring  us  down  to  the  inexplicable.  The  deepest  truth  which 
we  can  get  at,  must  be  unaccountable.  Comprehension  must 
become  something  other  than  comprehension,  before  the  ulti- 
mate fact  can  be  comprehended. 


74  THE    RELATIVITY   OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE. 

§  24.  The  inference  whicli  wo  thus  find  forced  upon  xw 
when  we  analyze  the  product  of  thought,  as  exhibited  ob- 
jectively in  scientific  generalizations,  is  equally  forced  upon  us 
by  an  analysis  of  the  process  of  thought,  as  exhibited  sub- 
jectively in  consciousness.  The  demonstration  of  the  neces- 
sarily relative  character  of  our  knowledge,  as  deduced  from 
the  nature  of  intelligence,  has  been  brought  to  its  most 
definite  shape  by  Sir  William  Hamilton.  I  cannot  here  do 
better  than  extract  from  his  essay  on  the  "Philosophy  of 
the  Unconditioned,"  the  passage  containing  the  substance  of 
his  doctrine. 

"  The  mind  can  conceive,'*  he  argues,  "  and  consequently 
can  know,  only  the  limited^  and  the  conditionally  limited.  The 
unconditionally  unlimited,  or  the  Infinite^  the  uncondition- 
ally limited,  or  the  AhsoIutCf  cannot  positively  be  construed  to 
the  mind ;  they  can  be  conceived,  only  by  a  thinking  away 
from,  or  abstraction  of,  those  very  conditions  under  which 
thought  itself  is  realized ;  consequently,  the  notion  of  the 
Unconditioned  is  only  negative, — negative  of  the  conceivable 
itself.  For  example,  on  the  one  hand  we  can  positively  conceive, 
neither  an  absolute  whole,  that  is,  a  whole  so  great,  that  wo 
cannot  also  conceive  it  as  a  relative  part  of  a  still  greater 
whole  ;  nor  an  absolute  part,  that  is,  a  part  so  small,  that  we 
cannot  also  conceive  it  as  a  relative  whole,  divisible  into  smaller 
parts.  On  the  other  hand,  we  cannot  positively  represent,  or 
realize,  or  construe  to  the  mind  (as  here  understanding  and 
imagination  coincide),  an  infinite  whole,  .for  this  could  only 
be  done  by  the  infinite  synthesis  in  thought  of  finite  wholes, 
which  would  itself  require  an  infinite  time  for  its  accomplish- 
ment ;  nor,  for  the  same  reason,  can  we  follow  out  in  thought 
an  infinite  divisibility  of  parts.  The  result  is  the  same, 
whether  we  apply  the  process  to  limitation  in  space^  in  time, 
.  or  in  degree.  The  unconditional  negation,  and  the  uncondi- 
tional affirmation  of  limitation  ;  in  other  words,  the  infinite 
and  absolute y  properly  so  called^  are  thus  equally  inconceiv- 
able to  us. 


THE   RELATIVITY   OF   ALL   ICNOWLEDGE.  75 

"  As  the  coAiitionally  limited  (wluch  we  may  briefly  call 

the  conditioned)  is  thus  the  only  possible  object  of  knowledge 
and  of  positive  thought — thought  necessarily  supposes  condi- 
tions. To  tJiink  is  to  condition;  and  conditional  limitation  is 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  possibility  of  thought.  For,  as 
the  greyhound  cannot  outstrip  his  shadow,  nor  (by  a  more 
appropriate  simile)  the  eagle  outsoar  the  atmosphere  in  which 
he  floats,  and  by  which  alone  he  may  be  supported ;  so  the 
mind  cannot  transcend  that  sphere  of  limitation,  within  and 
through  which  exclusively  the  possibility  of  thought  is 
reabzed.  Thought  is  only  of  the  conditioned ;  because,  as  we 
have  said,  to  think  is  simply  to  condition.  The  absolute  is 
conceived  merely  by  a  negation  of  conceivability ;  and  all 
that  we  know,  is  only  known  as 

*  won  from  the  void  and  formless  injinite* 

flow,  indeed,  it  could  ever  be  doubted  that  thought  is  only  of 
the  conditioned,  may  well  be  deemed  a  matter  of  theprofoundest 
admiration.  Thought  cannot  transcend  consciousness;  con- 
sciousness is  only  possible  under  the  antithesis  of  a  subject 
and  object  of  thought,  known  only  in  correlation,  and* mutually 
limiting  each  other ;  while,  independently  of  this,  all  that  we 
know  either  of  subject  or  object,  either  of  mind  or  matter,  is 
only  a  knowledge  in  each  of  the  particular,  of  the  plural,  of 
the  different,  of  the  modified,  of  the  phaenomenal.  We  admit 
that  the  consequence  of  this  doctrine  is, — that  philosophy,  if 
viewed  as  more  than  a  science  of  the  conditioned,  is  impossi- 
ble. Departing  from  the  particular,  we  admit,  that  we  can 
never,  in  our  highest  generalizations,  rise  above  the  finite ; 
that  our  knowledge,  whether  of  mind  or  matter,  can  be 
nothing  more  than  a  knowledge  of  the  relative  manifestations 
of  an  existence,  which  in  itseK  it  is  our  highest  wisdom  to 
recognize  as  beyond  the  reach  of  philosophy, — in  the  language 
3f  St  Austin, — *  cognoscendo  ignorari^  et  ignorando  cognosci* 
**  The  conditioned  is  tlie  mean  between  two  extremes, — two 


«0  THE    RELATIVITY   OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE. 

inconditionates,  exclusive  of  each  other,  neither  of  whicli  can 
be  conceived  as  j)ossible,  but  of  which,  on  the  principles  of  con- 
tradiction and  excluded  middle,  one  tnust  be  admitted  as 
necessary.  On  this  opinion,  therefore,  reason  is  shown  to 
be  weak,  but  not  deceitful.  The  mind  is  not  represented  as 
conceiving  two  propositions  subversive  of  each  other,  as 
equally  possible ;  but  only,  as  unable  to  understand  as  possi- 
ble, either  of  two  extremes ;  one  of  which,  however,  on 
the  ground  of  their  mutual  repugnance,  it  is  compelled 
to  recognize  as  true.  "We  are  thus  taught  the  salutary 
lesson,  that  the  capacity  of  thought  is  not  to  be  constituted 
into  the  measure  of  existence ;  and  are  warned  from  recogniz- 
ing the  domain  of  our  knowledge  as  necessarily  co-extensive 
with  the  horizon  of  our  faith.  And  by  a  wonderful  revelation, 
we  are  thus,  in  the  very  consciousness  of  our  inability  to 
conceive  aught  above  the  relative  and  finite,  inspired  with  a 
belief  in  the  existence  of  something  unconditioned  beyond  the 
sphere  of  all  comprehensible  reality.'* 

Clear  and  conclusive  as  this  statement  of  the  case  appears 
when  carefully  studied,  it  is  expressed  in  so  abstract  a 
manner  as  to  be  not  very  intelligible  to  the  general  reader. 
A  more  popular  presentation  of  it,  with  illustrative  applica- 
tions, as  given  by  Mr  Mansel  in  his  "Limits  of  Religious 
Thought,"  will  make  it  more  fully  understood.  The  follow- 
ing extracts,  which  I  take  the  liberty  of  making  from  his 
pages,  will  suffice. 

"  The  very  conception  of  consciousness,  in  whatever  mode 
it  may  be  manifested,  necessarily  implies  distinction  bcttceen 
one  object  and  another.  To  be  conscious,  we  must  be  conscious 
of  something ;  and  that  something  can  only  be  known,  as 
iliat  which  it  is,  by  being  distinguished  from  that  which  it  is 
aot.  But  distinction  is  necessarily  limitation ;  for,  if  one 
object  is  to  be  distinguished  from  another,  it  must  possess 
some  form  of  existence  which  the  other  has  not,  or  it  must 
not  possess  some  form  which  the  other  has.    But  it  is  obvious 


THE   RELATIVITY    OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE.  77 

the  Infinite  cannot  be  distinguislied,  as  such,  from  the  Finite, 
by  the  absence  of  any  quality  which  the  Finite  possesses  ;  for 
such  absence  would  be  a  limitation.  Kor  yet  can  it  be  dis- 
tinguished by  the  presence  of  an  attribute  which  the  Finite 
has  not ;  for,  as  no  finite  part  can  be  a  constituent  of  an 
infinite  whole,  this  difierential  characteristic  must  itself  be 
infinite  ;  and  must  at  the  same  time  have  nothing  in  common 
with  the  finite.  We  are  thus  thrown  back  upon  our  former 
impossibility ;  for  this  second  infinite  will  be  distinguished 
from  the  finite  by  the  absence  of  qualities  which  the  latter 
possesses.  A  consciousness  of  the  Infinite  as  such  thus  neces- 
sarilj^involves  a  self-contradiction  ;  for  it  implies  the  recogni- 
tion, by  limitation  and  difference,  of  that  which  can  only  be 
given  as  unlimited,  and  indifferent.         *         *         * 

'  "  This  contradiction,  which  is  utterly  inexplicable  on  the 
supposition  that  the  infinite  is  a  positive  object  of  human 
thought,  is  at  once  accounted  for,  when  it  is  regarded  as  the 
mere  negation  of  thought.  If  all  thought  is  limitation  ; — if 
whatever  we  conceive  is,  by  the  very  act  of  conception, 
regarded  as  finite, ^^A^  infinite ,  from  a  human  point  of  view, 
is  merely  a  name  for  the  absence  of  those  conditions  under 
which  thought  is  possible.  To  speak  of  a  Conception  of  the 
Infinite  is,  therefore,  at  once  to  affirm  those  conditions  and  to 
deny  them.  The  contradiction,  which  we  discover  in  such  a 
conception,  is  only  that  which  we  have  ourselves  placed  there, 
by  tacitly  assuming  the  conceivability  of  the  inconceivable. 
The  condition  of  consciousness  is  distinction ;  and  condition 
of  distinction  is  Kmitation.  We  can  have  no  consciousness  of 
Being  in  general  which  is  not  some  Being  in  particular :  a 
thing,  in  consciousness,  is  one  thing  out  of  many.  In  assum- 
ing the  possibility  of  an  infinite  object  of  consciousness,  I 
assume,  therefore,  that  it  is  at  the  same  time  limited  and 
unlimited ; — actually  something,  without  which  it  could  not 
be  an  object  of  consciousness,  and  actually  nothing,  without 

which  it  could  not  be  infinite.         *         *         * 

*'  A  second  characteristic  of  Consciousness  is,  that  it  is  only 
5 


7S  THE   RELATIVITY   OF   ATX    KNOWI.EDGI!. 

posaible  in  the  form  of  a  relation.  There  must  bo  a  Suhject, 
or  person  conscious,  and  an  Object,  or  thing  of  which  he  is 
conscious.  There  can  be  no  consciousness  without  the 
union  of  these  two  factors ;  and,  in  that  union,  each  existf» 
only  as  it  is  related  to  the  other.  The  subject  is  a  subject, 
only  in  so  far  as  it  is  conscious  of  an  object :  the  object  is  an 
object,  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  apprehended  by  a  subject :  and 
the  destruction  of  either  is  the  destruction  of  consciousness 
itself.  It  is  thus  manifest  that  a  consciousness  of  the  Abso- 
lute is  equally  self-contradictory  with  that  of  the  Infinite. 
To  be  conscious  of  the  Absolute  as  such,  we  must  know  that 
an  object,  which  is  given  in  relation  to  our  consciousrifess,  is 
identical  with  one  which  exists  in  its  own  nature,  out  of  all 
relation  to  consciousness.  But  to  know  this  identity,  wo 
must  be  able  to  compare  the  two  together ;  and  such  a  com- 
parison is  itself  a  contradiction.  We  are  in  fact  required  to 
compare  that  of  which  we  are  conscious  with  that  of  which 
we  are  not  conscious  ;  the  comparison  itself  being  an  act  of 
consciousness,  and  only  possible  through  the  consciousness  of 
both  its  objects.  It  is  thus  manifest  that,  even  if  we  could 
be  conscious  of  the  absolute,  we  could  not  possibly  know  that 
it  is  the  absolute  :  and,  as  we  can  be  conscious  of  an  object  as 
such,  only  by  knowing  it  to  be  what  it  is,  this  is  equivalent 
to  an  admission  that  we  cannot  be  conscious  of  the  absolute 
at  all.  As  an  object  of  consciousness,  every  thing  is  neces- 
sarily relative  ;  and  what  a  thing  may  be  out  of  consciousness, 
no  mode  of  consciousness  can  tell  us. 

*'  This  contradiction,  again,  admits  of  the  same  explanation 
as  the  former.  Our  whole  notion  of  existence  is  necessarily 
relative ;  for  it  is  existence  as  conceived  by  us.  But  Existence f 
as  we  conceive  it,  is  but  a  name  for  the  several  ways  in  which 
objects  are  presented  to  our  consciousness, — a  general  term, 
embracing  a  variety  of  relations.  The  Absolute,  on  the  other 
[band,  is  a  term  expressing  no  object  of  thought,  but  only  a 
'denial  of  the  relation  by  which  thought  is  constituted.  To 
assume  absolute  existence  as  an  object  of  thought,  is  thus  to 


THE    RELATIVITY   OF    ALL    KNO'VVLEDGE.  79 

puppoae  a  relation  existing  wlien  the  related  terms  exist  no 
longer.  An  object  of  thouglit  exists,  as  sucli,  in  and  through 
its  relation  to  a  thinker ;  while  the  Absolute,  as  such,  is  inde- 
pendent of  all  relation.  The  Conception  of  the  Absolute  thus 
implies  at  the  same  time  the  presence  and  absence  of  the  re- 
lation by  -which  thought  is  constituted ;  and  our  various  en- 
deavours to  represent  it  are  only  so  many  modified  forms  of 
the  contradiction  involved  in  our  original  assumption.  Here, 
too,  the  contradiction  is  one  which  we  ourselves  have  made. 
It  does  not  imply  that  the  Absolute  cannot  exist ;  but  it  im-  y 
plies,  most  certainly,  that  we  cannot  conceive  it  as  existing.*'  \ 

Here  let  me  point  out  how  the  same  general  inference  may 
be  evolved  from  another  fundamental  condition  of  thought, 
omitted  by  Sir  W.  Hamilton,  and  not  supplied  by  !Mr  Man- 
sel ; — a  condition  which,  imder  its  obverse  aspect,  we  have  al- 
ready contemplated  in  the  last  section.  Every  complete  act 
of  consciousness,  besides  distinction  and  relation,  also  implies 
likeness.  Eefore  it  can  become  an  idea,  or  constitute  a  piece 
of  knowledge,  a  mental  state  must  not  only  be  known  as 
separate  in  kind  from  certain  foregoing  states  to  which  it  is 
known  as  related  by  succession ;  but  it  must  further  be  knoTVTi 
as  of  the  same  kind  with  certain  other  foregoing  states. 
That  organization  of  changes  which  constitutes  thinking,  in- 
volves continuous  integration  as  well  as  continuous  differenti- 
ation. "Were  each  new  affection  of  the  mind  perceived 
simply  as  an  affection  in  some  way  contrasted  with  the 
preceding  ones — were  there  but  a  chain  of  impressions,  each 
of  which  as  it  arose  was  merely  distinguished  from  its  prede- 
cessors ;  consciousness  would  be  an  utter  chaos.  To  produce 
that  orderly  consciousness  which  we  call  intelligence,  there 
requires  the  assimilation  of  each  impression  to  others, 
tnat  occurred  earlier  in  the  series.  Both  the  successive 
mental  states,  and  the  successive  relations  which  they  bear  to 
each  other,  must  be  classified  ;  and  classification  involves  not 
only  a  parting  of  the  unlike,  but  also  a  binding  together  of 
the  like.     In  brief,  a  true  cognition  is  possible  only  through 


so  THE    RELATIVITY   OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE. 

an   accompanying  recognition.  Should  it   be  objected 

tbat  if  so,  there  cannot  be  a  first  cognition,  and  hence  there 
can  be  no  cognition ;  the  reply  is,  that  cognition  proper  arises 
gradually — that  during  the  first  stage  of  incipient  intelligence, 
before  the  feelings  produced  by  intercourse  with  the  outer  world 
have  been  put  into  order,  there  are  no  cognitions,  strictly  so 
called;  and  that,  as  every  infant  shows  us,  these  slowly 
emerge  out  of  the  confusion  of  unfolding  consciousness  as 
fast  as  the  experiences  are  arranged  into  groups — as  fast  as 
the  most  frequently  repeated  sensations,  and  their  relations  to 
each  other,  become  familiar  enough  to  admit  of  their  recog- 
nition as  such  or  such,  whenever  they  recur.  Should  it  be 
further  objected  that  if  cognition  pre-supposes  recognition, 
there  can  be  no  cognition,  even  by  an  adult,  of  an  object 
never  before  seen  ;  there  is  still  the  sufficient  answer  that  in 
so  far  as  it  is  not  assimilated  to  previously-seen  objects,  it  is 
not  known,  and  that  it  is  known  in  so  far  as  it  is  assimilated 
to  them.  Of  this  paradox  the  interpretation  is,  that  an  object 
is  classifiable  in  various  'ways,  with  various  degrees  of  com- 
pleteness. An  animal  hitherto  unknown  (mark  the  word), 
though  not  referable  to  any  established  species  or  genus,  is 
yet  recognized  as  belonging  to  one  of  the  larger  divisions 
— mammals,  birds,  reptiles,  or  fishes  ;  or  should  it  be  so 
momalous  that  its  alliance  with  any  of  these  is  not  determin- 
able, it  may  yet  be  classed  as  vertebrate  or  invertebrate  ;  or  if 
it  be  one  of  those  organisms  of  which  it  is  doubtful  whether 
the  animal  or  vegetal  characteristics  predominate,  it  is  still 
known  as  a  living  body ;  even  should  it  be  questioned 
whether  it  is  organic,  it  remains  beyond  question  that  it  is  a 
material  object,  and  it  is  cognized  by  being  recognized  as 
such.  "Whence  it  is  manifest  that  a  thing  is  perfectly  known 
only  when  it  is  in  all  respects  lilce  certain  things  previously 
observed ;  that  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  respects  in 
which  it  is  unlike  them,  is  the  extent  to  which  it  is  unknown ; 
and  that  hence  when  it  has  absolutely  no  attribute  in  common 


THE    RELATIVITY   OF    ALL   KNOWLEDGE.  81 

^'ith  anything  else,  it  must  be  absolutely  beyond  the  bounds 
of  knowledge. 

Observe  the  corollary  which  here  concerns  us.  A  cogni- 
tion of  the  Heal,  as  distinguished  from  the  Phenomenal,  must, 
if  it  exists,  conform  to  this  law  of  cognition  in  general.  The 
First  Cau^e,  The  Infinite,  the  Absolute,  to  be  known  at  all, 
must  be  classed.  To  be  positively  thought  of,  it  must  be 
thought  of  as  such  or  such — as  of  this  or  that  kind.  Can  it 
be  like  in  kind  to  an}i;hing  of  which  we  have  sensible 
experiencei*  Obviously  not.  Between  the  creating  and  the 
created,  there  must  be  a  distinction  transcending  any  of  the 
distinctions  existing  between  different  divisions  of  the  created. 
That  which  is  uncaused  cannot  be  assimilated  to  that  which 
is  caused  :  the  two  being,  in  the  very  naming,  antithetically 
opposed.  The  Infinite  cannot  be  grouped  along  with  some- 
thing that  is  finite  ;  since,  in  being  so  grouped,  it  must  bo 
regarded  as  not-infinite.  It  is  impossible  to  put  the  Abso- 
lute in  the  same  category  with  anything  relative,  so  long  as 
the  Absolute  is  defined  as  that  of  which  no  necessary  relation 
can  be  predicated.  Is  it  then  that  the  Actual,  though  un- 
thinkable by  classification  with  the  Apparent,  is  thinkable  by 
classification  with  itself  ?  This  supposition  is  equally  absurd 
with  the  other.  It  implies  the  plurality  of  the  First  Cause, 
the  Infinite,  the  Absolute ;  and  this  implication  is  self-contra- 
dictory. There  cannot  be  more  than  one  First  Cause  ;  seeing 
that  the  existence  of  more  than  one  would  involve  the  existence 
of  something  necessitating  more  than  one,  which  something 
vvould  be  the  true  First  Cause.  How  self-destructive  is  the 
assumption  of  two  or  more  Infinites,  is  manifest  on  remember- 
ing that  such  Infinites,  by  limiting  each  other,  would  become 
finite.  And  similarly,  an  Absolute  which  existed  not  alone 
but  along  with  other  Absolutes,  would  no  longer  be  an  abso- 
lute but  a  relative.  The  Unconditioned  therefore,  as  classable 
neither  with  any  form  of  the  conditioned  nor  with  any  other 
Unconditioned,  cannot  be  classed  at  all.  And  to  admit  that 
it  cannot  be  known  as  of  such  or  such  kind,  is  to  admit  that 
it  is  miknowablo. 


83  lUH    RKLATIVITY   OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE. 

Thus,  from  tlie  very  nature  of  thouglit,  the  relativity  of  our 
knowledge  is  inferable  in  three  several  ways.  As  we  find  by 
analyzing  it,  and  as  we  see  it  objectively  displayed  in  every 
proposition,  a  thought  involves  relation,  difference,  likeness. 
Whatever  does  not  present  each  of  these  does  not  admit  of 
cognition.  And  hence  we  may  say  that  the  Unconditioned,  as 
presenting  none  of  them,  is  trebly  unthinkable. 

§  25.  From  yet  another  point  of  view  we  may  discern  the 
same  great  truth.  If,  instead  of  examining  our  intellectual . 
powers  directly  as  exhibited  in  the  act  of  thought,  or  indirectly 
as  exhibited  in  thought  when  expressed  by  words,  we  look  at 
the  connexion  between  the  mind  and  the  world,  a  like  conclu- 
sion is  forced  upon  us.  In  tBe  very  definition  of  Life,  when 
reduced  to  its  most  abstract  shape,  this  ultimate  implication 
becomes  visible. 

All  vital  actions,  considered  not  separately  but  in  their 
ensemble,  have  for  their  final  purpose  th'b  balancing  of  certain 
outer  processes  by  certain  inner  processes.  There  are  unceasing 
external  forces  tending  to  bring  the  matter  of  which  organic 
bodies  consist,  into  that  state  of  stable  equilibrium  displayed 
by  inorganic  bodies;  there  are  internal  forces  by  which 
this  tendency  is  constantly  antagonized;  and  the  perpetual 
changes  which  constitute  Life,  may  be  regarded  as  incidental 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  antagonism.  To  preserve  the 
erect  posture,  for  instance,  we  see  that  certain  weights  have 
to  be  neutralized  by  certain  strains  :  each  limb  or  other  organ, 
gravitating  to  the  Earth  and  pulling  down  the  parts  to  which 
it  is  attached,  has  to  be  preserved  in  position  by  the  tension 
of  sundry  muscles;  or  in  other  words,  the  group  of  forces 
which  would  if  allowed  bring  the  body  to  the  ground,  has  to 
be  counterbalanced  by  another  group  of  forces.  Again,  to 
keep  up  the  temperature  at  a  particular  point,  the  external 
process  of  radiation  and  absorption  of  heat  by  the  surround- 
ing medium,  must  be  met  by  a  corresponding  internal  process 
of  chemical  combination,  whereby  more  heat  may  be  evolved  ; 
to  which   add,   that  if  from  atmospheric  chan;::e3   the   loss 


THE    RELATIVITY   OP    ALL   KNOWLEDGE.  83 

becomes  greater  or  less,  tlie  production  must  become  greater  or 
less.  And  similarly  throughout  the  organic  actions  in  general. 
AYhen  we  contemplate  the  lower  kinds  of  life,  we  see  that 
the  correspondences  thus  maintained  are  direct  and  simple  ; 
as  in  a  plant,  the  vitality  of  which  mainly  consists  in  osmotic 
and  chemical  actions  responding  to  the  co-existence  of  light, 
heat,  water,  and  carbonic  acid  aroimd  it.  But  in  animals,  and 
especially  in  the  higher  orders  of  them,  the  correspondences 
become  extremely  complex.  Materials  for  growth  and 
repair  not  being,  like  those  which  plants  require,  everywhere 
present,  but  being  widely  dispersed  and  under  special  forms, 
have  to  be  found,  to  be  secured,  and  to  be  reduced  to  a  fit  state 
for  assimilation.  Hence  the  need  for  locomotion ;  hence  the  need 
for  the  senses  ;  hence  the  need  for  prehensile  and  destructive 
appliances ;  hence  the  need  for  an  elaborate  digestive  appa- 
ratus. Observe,  however,  that  these  successive  complications 
are  essentially  nothing  but  aids  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
organic  balance  in  its  integrity,  in  opposition  to  those  physical, 
chemical,  and  other  agencies  which  tend  to  overturn  it.  And 
observe,  moreover,  that  while  these  successive  complications 
subserve  this  fundamental  adaptation  of  inner  to  outer  actions, 
they  are  themselves  nothing  else  but  further  adaptations  of 
inner  to  outer  actions.  For  what  are  those  movements  by 
which  a  predatory  creature  pursues  its  prey,  or  by  which  its 
prey  seeks  to  escape,  but  certain  changes  in  the  organism 
fitted  to  meet  certain  changes  in  its  environment  ?  What  is 
that  compound  operation  which  constitutes  the  perception  of 
a  piece  of  food,  but  a  particular  correlation  of  nervous  modifi- 
cations, answering  to  a  particular  correlation  of  physical  pro- 
perties ?  What  is  that  process  by  which  food  when  swallowed 
is  reduced  to  a  fit  form  for  assimilation,  but  a  set  of  mechanical 
and  chemical  actions  responding  to  the  mechanical  and 
chemical  actions  which  distinguish  tlie  food?  Whence 
it  becomes  manifest,  that  while  Life  in  its  simplest  form  is  the 
correspondence  of  certain  inner  physico-chemical  actions  with 
certain  outer  physico-chemical  actions,  each  advance  to  a  higher 


b4  THE    RELATIVITY    OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE. 

form  of  Life  consists  in  a  better  preservation  of  this  primary 
correspondence  by  the  establisliment  of  otter  correspondences. 
Divesting  this  conception  of  all  superfluities  and  reducing 
it  to  its  most  abstract  shape,  we  see  that  Life  is  definable  as 
the  continuous  adjustment  of  internal  relations  to  external 
relations.  And  when  we  so  define  it,  we  discover  that  the 
physical  and  the  psychial  life  are  equally  comprehended  by 
the  definition.  We  perceive  that  this  which  we  call  Intelli- 
gence, shows  itself  when  the  external  relations  to  which  the 
internal  ones  are  adjusted,  begin  to  be  numerous,  complex,  and 
remote  in  time  or  space ;  that  every  advance  in  Intelligence 
essentially  consists  in  the  establishment  of  more  varied,  more 
complete,  and  more  involved  adjustments  ;  and  that  even  the 
highest  achievements  of  science  are  resolvable  into  mental  rela- 
tions of  co-existence  and  sequence,  so  co-ordinated  as  exactly  to 
tally  with  certain  relations  of  co-existence  and  sequence  that 
occur  externally.  A  caterpillar,  wandering  at  random  and  at 
length-finding  its  way  on  to  a  plant  having  a  certain  odour, 
begins  to  eat — has  inside  of  it  an  organic  relation,  between 
a  particular  impression  and  a  particular  set  of  actions,  answer- 
ing to  the  relation  outside  of  it,  between  scent  and  nutriment. 
The  sparrow,  guided  by  the  more  complex  correlation  of  impres- 
sions which  the  colour,  form,  and  movements  of  the  caterpillar 
gave  it ;  and  guided  also  by  other  correlations  which  measure 
the  position  and  distance  of  the  caterpillar ;  adjusts  certain 
correlated  muscular  movements  in  such  way  as  to  seize  the 
caterpillar.  Through  a  much  greater  distance  in  space  is  the 
hawk,  hovering  above,  afiected  by  the  relations  of  shape  and 
motion  which  the  sparrow  presents  ;  and  the  much  more  com- 
plicated and  prolonged  series  of  related  nervous  and  muscular 
changes,  gone  through  in  correspondence  with  the  sparrow's 
changing  relations  of  position,  finally  succeed  when  they  are 
precisely  adjusted  to  these  changing  relations.  In  the  fowler, 
experience  has  established  a  relation  between  the  appearance 
and  flight  of  a  hawk  and  the  destruction  of  other  birds,  includ- 
ing game  ;  there  is  abo  in  him  an  established  relation  between 


THE   RELATIVITY   OF   ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  85 

those  visual  impressions  answering  to  a  certain  distance  in 
space,  and  tlie  range  of  his  gun ;  and  he  has  learned,  too, 
by  frequent  observation,  what  relations  of  position  the 
sights  must  bear  to  a  point  somewhat  in  advance  of  the  fly- 
ing bird,  before  he-  can  fire  with  success.  Similarly  if  we 
go  back  to  the  manufacture  of  the  gun.  By  relations  of  co- 
existence between  colour,  density,  and  place  in  the  earth,  a 
particular  mineral  is  known  as  one  which  yields  iron ;  and 
the  obtainment  of  iron  from  it,  results  when  certain  correlated 
acts  of  ours,  are  adjusted  to  certain  correlated  afiinities  dis- 
played by  ironstone,  coal,  and  lime,  at  a  high  temperature.  If 
we  descend  yet  a  step  further,  and  ask  a  chemist  to  explain  the 
explosion  of  gunpowder,  or  apply  to  a  mathematician  for  a 
theory  of  projectiles,  we  stiU  find  that  special  or  general  rela- 
tions of  co-existence  and  sequence  between  properties,  mo- 
tions, spaces  &c.,  are  all  they  can  teach  us.  And  lastly,  let  it  be 
noted  that  what  we  call  truth,  guiding  us  to  successful  action 
and  the  consequent  maintenance  of  life,  is  simply  the  "accurate 
correspondence  of  subjective  to  objective  rglajjmis ;  while  error, 
leading  to  failui'e  and  therefore  towards  death,  is  the  absence 
of  such  accurate  correspondence. 

If,  then,  Life  in  all  its  manifestations,  inclusive  of  Intelli- 
gence in  its  highest  forms,  consists  in  the  continuous  adjust- 
ment of  internal  relations  to  external  relations,  the  necessarily 
relative  character  of  our  knowledge  becomes  obvious.  The 
simplest  cognition  being  the  establishment  of  some  connexion 
between  subjective  states,  answering  to  some  connexion  be- 
tween objective  agencies ;  and  each  successively  more  complex 
cognition  being  the  establishment  of  some  more  involved  con- 
nexion of  such  states,  answering  to  some  more  involved  con- 
nexion of  such  agencies ;  it  is  clear  that  the  process,  no  mattei 
how  far  it  be  carried,  can  never  bring  within  the  reach  of  Intel- 
ligence, either  the  states  themselves  or  the  agencies  themselves . 
Ascertaining  which  things  occur  along  with  which,  and  what 
things  follow  what,  supposing  it  to  be  pursued  exhaustively, 
must  still  leave  us  with  co-existences  and  sequences  only.     11 


B(i  THE    RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE. 

every  act  of  knowing  is  the  formation  of  a  relation  in  consci- 
ousness parallel  to  a  relation  in  the  environment,  then  the  re- 
lati\dty  of  knowledge  is  self-evident — becomes  indeed  a  truism. 
Thinking  being  relationing,  no  thought  can  ever  express  more 
than  relations. 

And  here  let  us.  not  omit  to  mark  how  that  to  which  our 
intelligence  is  confined,  is  that  with  which  alone  our  intelli- 
gence is  concerned.  The  knowledge  within  our  reach,  is  the 
only  knowledge  that  can  be  of  service  to  us.  This  mainten- 
ance of  a  correspondence  between  internal  actions  and  exter- 
nal actions,  which  both  constitutes  our  life  at  each  moment 
and  is  the  means  whereby  life  is  continued  through  subsequent 
moments,  merely  requires  that  the  agencies  acting  upon  us 
shall  be  known  in  their  co-existences  and  sequences,  and  not 
that  they  shall  be  known  in  themselves.  If  a;  and  y  are  two 
uniformly  connected  properties  in  some  outer  object,  while  a 
and  h  are  the  effects  they  produce  in  our  consciousness ;  and 
if  while  the  property  x  produced  in  us  the  indifferent  mental 
state  a,  the  property  y  produces  in  us  the  painful  mental  state 
h  (answering  to  a  physical  injury) ;  then,  all  that  is  requisite 
for  our  guidance,  is,  that  x  being  the  uniform  accompaniment 
of  y  externally,  a  shall  be  the  uniform  accompaniment  of  h  in- 
ternally ;  so  that  when,  by  the  presence  of  x^  a  is  produced  in 
consciousness,  5,  or  rather  the  idea  of  h,  shall  follow  it,  and 
excite  the  motions  by  which  the  e fleet  of  y  may  be  escaped. 
The  sole  need  is  that  a  and  h  and  the  relation  between  them, 
shall  always  answer  to  x  and  y  and  the  relation  between  them. 
It  matters  nothing  to  us  if  a  and  h  are  like  x  and  y  or  not. 
Could  they  be  exactly  identical  with  them,  we  should  not  bo 
one  whit  the  better  off;  and  their  total  dissimilarity  is  no 
ilisadvantage  to  us. 

Deep  down  then  in  the  very  nature  of  Life,  the  relativity 
3f  our  knowledge  is  discernible.  The  analysis  of  vital  actions 
in  general,  leads  not  only  to  the  conclusion  tliat  things  in  them- 
selves cannot  be  known  to  us  ;  but  also  to  the  conclusion  that 
knowledge  of  thc.'m,  were  it  possllJe,  would  be  useless. 


TIIS    KELATIVITX    OF   ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  87 

§  26.  There  still  remains  tlie  final  question — AVhat  must 
we  say  concerning  that  which  transcends  knowledge  ?  Are 
we  to  rest  wholly  in  the  consciousness  of  phenomena  ? — is  the 
result  of  inquiry  to  exclude  utterly  from  our  minds  everything 
but  the  relative  ?  or  must  we  also  believe  in  something  beyond 
the  relative  ?  • 

The  answer  of  pure  logic  is  held  to  be,  that  by  the  limits 
of  our  intelligence  .we  are  rigorously  confined  within  the  re- 
lative ;  and  that  anj^thing  transcending  the  relative  can  be 
thought  of  only  as  a  pure  negation,  or  as  a  ^non-existence. 
"  The  ahsolate  is  conceived  merely  by  a  negation  of  conceiva- 
bility,"  writes  Sir  William  Hamilton.  **The  Absolute  and 
the  Injlnite,'*  says  Mr  Mansel,  "  are  thus,  like  the  Inconceiv- 
able and  the  Imperceptible^  names  indicating,  not  an  object  of 
thought  or  of  consciousness  at  all,  but  the  mere  absence  of  the 
conditions  under  which  consciousness  is  possible."  From  each 
of  which  extracts  may  be  deduced  the  conclusion,  that  since 
reason  cannot  warrant  us  in  affirming  the  positive  existence 
of  what  is  cognizable  only  as  a  negation,  we  cannot  rationally 
affirm  the  positive  existence  of  anything  beyond  phenomena. 

Unavoidable  as  this  conclusion  seems,  it  involves,  I  think, 
a  grave  error.  If  the  premiss  be  granted,  the  inference  must 
doubtless  be  admitted  ;  but  the  premiss,  in  the  form  presented 
by  Sir  William  Hamilton  and  Mr  Mansel,  is  not  strictly  true. 
Though,  in  the  foregoing  pages,  the  arguments  used  by  these 
writers  to  show  that  the  Absolute  is  unknowable,  have  been 
approvingly  quoted  ;  and  though  these  arguments  have  been 
enforced  by  others  equally  thoroughgoing ;  yet  there  remains 
to  be  stated  a  qualification,  which  saves  us  from  that  scepti- 
cism othei*wise  necessitated.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  so 
long  as  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  pnrely  logical  aspect  of  the 
question,  the  propositions  quoted  above  must  be  accepted  in 
their  entirety ;  but  when  we  contemplate  its  more  general,  or 
psychological,  aspect,  we  find  that  these  propositions  are  im- 
perfect statements  of  the  truth  :  omitting,  or  rather  excluding, 
as  they  do,  ^n  aU-important  fact.     To  speak  specifically : — 


B8  THE    RELATIVITY   OF   ALL    KNOWLEDGE. 

Besides  that  definite  consciousness  of  which  Logic  formiJatcfe 
the  laws,  there  is  also  an  indefinite  consciousness  which  cannot 
be  formulated.  Besides  complete  thoughts,  and  besides  the 
thoughts  which  though  incomplete  admit  of  completion,  there 
are  thoughts  which  it  is  impossible  to  complete  ;  and  yet  which 
jfre  still  real,  in  the  sense  that  they  are  normal  affections  of 
the  intellect. 

Observe  in  the  first  place,  that  every  one  of  the  arguments 
by  which  the  relativity  of  our  knowledge  is  demonstrated, 
distinctly  postulates  the  positive  existence  of  something  be- 
yond the  relative.  To  say  that  we  cannot  know  the  Absolute, 
is,  by  implication,  to  affirm  that  there  /«  an  Absolute.  In  the 
very  denial  of  our  power  to  learn  what  the  Absolute  is,  there 
lies  hidden  the  assumption  that  it  is ;  and  the  making  of 
this  assumption  proves  that  the  Absolute  has  been  present 
to  the  mind,  not  as  a  nothing,  but  as  a  something.  Similarly 
with  every  step  in  the  reasoning  by  which  this  doctrine  is 
upheld.  The  Noumenon,  everywhere  named  as  the  antithesis 
of  the  Phenomenon,  is  throughout  necessarily  thought  of  as 
an  actuality.  It  is  rigorously  impossible  to  conceive  that  our 
knowledge  is  a  knowledge  of  Appearances  only,  without  at  the 
same  time  conceiving  a  Reality  of  which  they  are  appearances  ; 
for  appearance  without  reality  is  unthinkable.  Strike  out 
from  the  argument  the  terms  Unconditioned,  Infinite,  Absolute, 
with  their  equivalents,  and  in  place  of  them  write,  "  negation 
of  conceivability,"  or  "  absence  of  the  conditions  under  which 
consciousness  is  possible,"  and  you  find  that  the  argument 
becomes  nonsense.  Truly  to  realize  in  thought  any  one  of  the 
propositions  of  which  the  argument  consists,  the  Unconditioned 
must  be  represented  as  positive  and  not  negative.  How  then  can 
it  be  a  legitimate  conclusion  from  the  argument,  that  our  con- 
sciousness of  it  is  negative  ?  An  argument,  the  very  construc- 
tion of  which  assigns  to  a  certain  term  a  certain  meaning, 
but  which  ends  in  showing  that  this  term  has  no  such  mean- 
ing, is  simply  an  elaborate  suicide.  Clearly,  then,  the  very 
demonstration  that  a  definite  consciousness  of  the  Absolute 


TllE    RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  89 

iis  impossible  to  us,  unavoidably  presupposes  an  indejitiite  con- 
sciousness of  it. 

Perhaps  tbe  best  way  of  showing  that  by  the  necessary 
conditions  of  thought,  we  are  obliged  to  form  a  positive  though 
vague  consciousness  of  this  which  transcends  distinct  con- 
sciousness, is  to  analyze  our  conception  of  the  antithesis 
between  Eelative  and  Absolute.  It  is  a  doctrine  called  in 
question  by  none,  that  such  antinomies  of  thought  as  Whole 
and  Part,  Equal  and  Unequal,  Singular  and  Plural,  are 
necessarily  conceived  as  correlatives  :  the  conception  of  a  pari 
is  impossible  without  the  conception  of  a  whole ;  there  can 
be  no  idea  of  equality  without  one  of  inequality.  And  it  is 
admitted  that  in  the  same  manner,  the  Eelative  is  itself  con- 
ceivable as  such,  only  by  opposition  to  the  Irrelative  or  Abso- 
lute. Sir  William  Hamilton  however,  in  his  trenchant 
(and  in  most  parts  unanswerable)  criticism  on  Cousin,  contends, 
in  conformity  Tvith  his  position  above  stated,  that  one  of 
these  correlatives  is  nothing  whatever  beyond  the  negation  of 
the  other.  "  Correlatives  "  he  says  "  certainly  suggest  each 
other,  but  correlatives  may,  or  may  not,  be  equally  real  and 
positive.  In  thought  contradictories  necessarily  imply  each 
other,  for  the  knowledge  of  contradictories  is  one.  But  the 
reality  of  one  contradictory,  so  far  from  guaranteeing  the  reality 
of  the  other,  is  nothing  else  than  its  negation.  Thus  every 
positive  notion  (the  concept  of  aC  thing  by  what  it  is)  suggests 
a  negative  notion  (the  concept  of  a  thing  by  what  it  is  not)  ; 
and  the  highest  positive  notion,  the  notion  of  the  conceivable, 
is  not  without  its  corresponding  negative  in  the  notion  of  the 
inconceivable.  But  though  these  mutually  suggest  each 
other,  the  positive  alone  is  real ;  the  negative  is  only  an  ab- 
straction of  the  other,  and  in  the  highest  generality,  even  an 
abstraction  of  thought  itself."  Now  the  assertion 
that  of  such  contradictories  "  the  negative  is  onhj  an  abstrac- 
tion of  the  other  " — "  is  nothing  else  than  its  negation," — is 
not  true.  In  such  correlatives  as  Equal  and  Unequal,  it  ia 
obvious  enou2:h  that  the  negative  concept  contains  something 


BO  THE    RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE. 

besides  the  negation  of  the  positive  one;  for  the  things  of 
which  equality  is  denied  are  not  abolished  from  consciousness 
by  the  denial.  And  the  fact  overlooked  by  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  is,  that  the  like  holds  even  with  those  correlatives 
of  which  the  negative  is  inconceivable,  in  the  strict  sense  of 
the  word.  Take  for  example  the  Limited  and  the  Unlimited. 
Our  notion  of  the  Limited  is  composed,  firstly  of  a  conscious- 
ness of  some  kind  of  being,  and  secondly  of  a  consciousness  of 
the  limits  under  which  it  is  known.  Li  the  antithetical  notion 
of  the  Unlimited,  the  consciousness  of  limits  is  abolished ;  but 
not  the  consciousness  of  some  kind  of  being.  It  is  quite  true 
that  in  the  absence  of  conceived  limits,  this  consciousness  ceases 
to  be  a  concept  properly  so  called ;  but  it  is  none  the  less  true 
that  it  remains  as  a  mode  of  consciousness.  If,  in  such  cases, 
the  negative  contradictory  were,  as  alleged,  "  nothing  else  " 
than  the  negation  of  the  other,  and  therefore  a  mere  nonen- 
tity, then  it  would  clearly  follow  that  negative  contradictories 
could  be  used  interchangeably:  the  Unlimited  might  be 
thought  of  as  antithetical  to  the  Divisible  ;  and  the  Indivisible 
as  antithetical  to  the  Limited.  While  the  fact  that  they 
cannot  be  so  used,  proves  that  in  consciousness  the  Unlimited 
and  the  Indivisible  are  qualitatively  distinct,  and  therefore 
positive  or  real;  since  distinction  cannot  exist  between 
nothings.  The  error,  (very  naturally  fallen  into  by  philo- 
sophers intent  on  demonstrating  the  limits  and  conditions 
of  consciousness,)  consists  in  assuming  that  consciousness  con- 
tains nothing  hut  limits  and  conditions  ;  to  the  entire  neglect 
of  that  which  is  limited  and  conditioned.  It  is  forgotten 
that  there  is  something  which  alike  forms  the  raw  material 
of  definite  thought  and  remains  after  the  definiteness  which 
thinking  gave  to  it  has  been  destroyed.  Now  all 

this  applies  by  change  of  terms  to  the  last  and  highest  of 
these  antinomies — that  between  the  Relative  and  the  Non- 
relative.  We  are  conscious  of  the  Relative  as  existence  under 
conditions  and  limits ;  it  ia  impossible  that  these  conditions 
find  limits  can  be  thought  of  apart  from  something  to  which 


THE    RELATIVITY    OF   ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  9i 

tliey  give  the  form  ;  tlie  abstraction  of  these  conditions  and 
limits,  is,  by  the  hypothesis,  the  abstraction  of  them  only  ;  con- 
sequently there  must  be  a  residuary  consciousness  of  some-  , 
thing  which  filled  up  their  outlines  ;  and  this  indefinite  some- 
tliinsr  constitutes  our  consciousness  of  the  Non-relative  or 
Absolute.  Impossible  though  it  is  to  give  to  this  conscious- 
ness any  qualitative  or  quantitative  expression  whatever,  it  is 
not  the  less  certain  that  it  remains  with  us  as  a  positive  and 
indestructible  element  of  thought. 

Stni  more  manifest  will  this  truth  become  when  it  is  ob- 
served that  our  conception  of  the  Relative  itself  disappears,  if 
our  conception  of  the  Absolute  is  a  pure  negation.  It  is  ad- 
mitted, or  rather  it  is  contended,  by  the  writers  I  have  quoted 
above,  that  contradictories  can  be  known  only  in  relation  to 
each  other — that  Equality,  for  instance,  is  unthinkable  apart 
from  its  correlative  Inequality  ;  and  that  thus  the  Relative  can 
itself  be  conceived  only  by  opposition  to  the  Non-relative.  It 
is  also  admitted,  or  rather  contended,  that  the  consciousness  of 
a  relation  implies  a  consciousness  of  both  the  related  members. 
If  we  are  required  to  conceive  the  relation  between  the  Re- 
lative and  Non-relative  without  being  conscious  of  both,  "  we 
are  in  fact"  (to  quote  the  words  of  JSIr  Mansel  diflerently 
applied)  "  required  to  compare  that  of  which  we  are  conscious 
with  that  of  which  we  are  not  conscious ;  the  comparison 
itself  being  an  act  of  consciousness,  and  only  possible  through 
the  consciousness  of  both  its  objects."  What  then  becomes 
of  the  assertion  that  "  the  Absolute  is  conceived  merely  by  a 
negation  of  conceivability,"  or  as  "  the  mere  absence  of  the 
conditions  under  which  consciousness  is  possible  ?  "  If  the  Non- 
relative  or  Absolute,  is  present  in  thought  only  as  a  mere 
negation,  then  the  relation  between  .it  and  the  Relative  be- 
comes unthinkable,  because  one  of  the  terms  of  the  relation  is 
absent  from  consciousness.  And  if  this  relation  is  unthink- 
able, then  is  the  Relative  itself  unthinkable,  for  want  of  it- 
antithesis  :  whence  residts  the  disappearance  of  all  thought 
wliatever. 


92  THE   RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE. 

Let  me  here  point  out  that  both  Sir  Wm  Hamilton  and 
Mr  Mansel,  do,  in  other  places,  distinctly  imply  that  our 
consciousness  of  the  Absolute,  indefinite  though  it  is,  is 
positive  and  not  negative.  The  very  passage  abeady  quoted 
from  Sir  "Wm  Hamilton,  in  which  he  asserts  that  "the 
absolute  is  conceived  merely  by  a  negation  of  conceivability," 
itself  ends  with  the  remark  that,  "  by  a  wonderful  revelation, 
we  are  thus,  in  the  very  consciousness  of  our  inability  to  con- 
ceive aught  above  the  relative  and  finite,  inspired  with  a 
belief  in  the  existence  of  something  unconditioned  beyond 
the  sphere  of  all  comprehensible  reality."  The  last  of 
these  assertions  practically  admits  that  which  the  other 
denies.  By  the  laws  of  thought  as  Sir  Wm  Hamilton  has 
interpreted  them,  he  finds  himself  forced  to  the  conclusion 
that  our  consciousness  of  the  Absolute  is  a  pure  negation. 
He  nevertheless  finds  that  there  does  exist  in  consciousness 
an  irresistible  conviction  of  the  real  "  existence  of  some- 
thing imconditioned."  And  he  gets  over  the  inconsistency 
by  speaking  of  this  conviction  as  "  a  wonderful  revelation  " — 
"  a  belief  "  with  which  we  are  "  inspired :  "  thus  apparently 
hinting  that  it  is  supernaturally  at  variance  with  the  laws  of 
thought.  Mr  Mansel  is  betrayed  into  a  like  inconsistency. 
"When  he  says  that  "  we  are  compelled,  by  the  constitution  of 
our  minds,  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  an  Absolute  and  In- 
finite Being, — a  belief  which  appears  forced  upon  us,  as  the 
complement  of  our  consciousness  of  the  relative  and  the 
finite  ;  "  he  clearly  says  by  implication  that  this  conscious- 
ness is  positive,  and  not  negative.  He  tacitly  admits  that 
we  are  obliged  to  regard  the  Absolute  as  something  more 
than  a  negation^that  our  consciousness  of  it  is  not  "  the 
mere  absence  of  the  conditions  under  which  consciousness  is 
possible." 

The  supreme  importance  of  this  question  must  be  my 
apology  for  taxing  the  reader's  attention  a  little  further,  in 
the  hope  of  clearing  up  the  remaining  difficulties.  The  ne- 
cessarily positive  character  of  our  consciousness  of  the  Uncon« 


THE   RELATIVITY    OV    ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  93 

ditioned,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  follows  from  an  ultimate 
law  of  thought,  will  be  better  imderstood  on  contemplating 
the  process  of  thought. 

One  of  the  arguments  used  to  prove  the  relativity  of 
our  knowledge,  is,  that  we  cannot  conceive  Space  or  Time  as 
either  limited  or  unlimited.  It  is  pointed  out  that  when  we 
imagine  a  limit,  there  simultaneously  arises  the  consciousness 
of  a  space  or  time  existing  beyond  the  limit.  This  remoter 
space  or  tjme,  though  not  contemplated  as  definite,  is  yet  con- 
templated as  real.  Though  we  do  not  form  of  it  a  conception 
proper,  since  we  do  not  bring  it  within  bounds,  there  is  yet  in 
our  minds  the  unshaped  material  of  a  conception.  Similarly 
with  our  consciousness  of  Cause.  AYe  are  no  more  able  to 
form  a  circumscribed  idea  of  Cause,  than  of  Space  or  Time  ; 
and  we  are  consequently  obliged  to  think  of  the  Cause  which 
transcends  the  limits  of  our  thought  as  positive  though  inde- 
finite. Just  in  the  same  manner  that  on  conceiving"  any 
bounded  space,  there  arises  a  nascent  consciousness  of  space 
outside  the  bounds  ;  so,  when  we  think  of  any  definite  cause, 
there  arises  a  nascent  consciousness  of  a  cause  behind  it :  and 
in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  this  nascent  consciousness  is 
in  substance  lake  that  which  suggests  it,  though  without  form. 
The  momentmn  of  thought  inevitably  carries  us  beyond  con- 
ditioned existence  to  unconditioned  existence ;  and  this  ever 
persists  in  us  as  the  body  of  a  thought  to  which  we  can  give 
no  shape. 

Ilence  our  firm  belief  in  objective  reality — a  belief  which 
inetaphysical  criticisms  cannot  for  a  moment  shake.  When 
we  are  taught  that  a  piece  of  matter,  regarded  by  us  as  exist- 
ing externally,  cannot  be  really  known,  but  that  we  can 
know  only  certain  impressions  produced  on  us,  we  are  yet,  by 
the  relativity  of  our  thought,  compelled  to  thmk  of  these  in 
relation  to  A  positive  cause — the  notion  of  a  real  existence 
which  generated  these  impressions  becomes  nascent.  If  it  be 
proved  to  us  that  every  notion  of  a  real  existence  which  we 
can  frame,  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  itself — that  matter, 


y4  THE    RELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE. 

however  conceived  by  us,  cannot  be  matter  as  it  actually  is, 
our  conception,  tbougli  transfigured,  is  not  destroyed :  there 
remains  the  sense  of  reality,  dissociated  as  far  as  possible  from 
those  special  forms  under  which  it  was  before  represented  in 
thought.  Though  Philosophy  condemns  successively  each 
attempted  conception  of  the  Absolute — though  it  proves  to  us 
that  the  Absolute  is  not  this,  nor  that,  nor  that — though  in 
obedience  to  it  we  negative,  one  after  another,  each  idea  as  it 
arises ;  yet,  as  we  cannot  expel  the  entire  contents  of  consci- 
ousness, there  ever  remains  behind  an  element  which  passes 
into  new  shapes.  The  continual  negation  of  each  particu- 
lar form  and  limit,  simply  resuhs  in  the  more  or  less  com- 
plete abstraction  of  all  forms  and  limits ;  and  so  ends  in  an 
indefinite  consciousness  of  the  unformed  and  unlimited. 

And  here  we  come  face  to  face  with  the  ultimate  diffi- 
culty— How  can  there  possibly  be  constituted  a  consciousness 
of  the  unformed  and  unlimited,  when,  by  its  very  nature,  con- 
sciousness is  possible  only  under  forms  and  limits  ?.  If  every 
consciousness  of  existence  is  a  consciousness  of  existence  as 
conditioned,  then  how,  after  the  negation  of  conditions,  can 
there  be  any  residuum  ?.  Though  not  directly  withdrawn  by 
the  withdrawal  of  its  conditions,  must  not  the  raw  material  of 
consciousness  be  withdrawn  by  implication  ?.  Must  it  not  van- 
ish when  the  conditions  of  its  existence  vanish  ?  That 
there  must  be  a  solution  of  this  diflB.culty  is  manifest ;  since 
even  those  who  would  put  it,  do,  as  abeady  sho^vn,  admit 
that  we  have  some  such  consciousness  ;  and  the  solution  ap- 
pears to  be  that  above  shadowed  forth.  Such  consciousness 
is  not,  and  cannot  be,  constituted  by  any  single  mental  act ; 
but  is  the  product  of  many  mental  acts.  In  each  concept  there 
is  an  element  which  persists.  It  is  alike  impossible  for  this 
element  to  be  absent  from  consciousness,  and  for  it  to  be  pre- 
sent in  consciousness  alone  :  either  alternative  involves  un- 
consciousness— the  one  from  the  want  of  the  substance  ;  the 
other  from  the  want  of  the  form.  But  the  persistence  of  this 
element  under  successive  conditions,  necessitates  a  sense  of  it  aa 


THE    KELATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  96 

distinguislied  from  the  conditions,  and  independent  of  them. 
The  sense  of  a  something  that  is  conditioned  in  every  thought, 
cannot  be  got  rid  of,  because  the  something  cannot  be  got  rid  of. 
IIow  then  must  the  sense  of  this  something  be  constituted  ? 
Evidently  by  combining  successive  concepts  deprived  of  their 
limits  and  conditions.  We  form  this  indefinite  thought,  as 
we  form  many  of  our  definite  thoughts,  by  the  coalescence  of 
a  series  of  thoughts.  Let  me  illustrate  this.  A  large 

complex  object,  having  attributes  too  numerous  to  be  repre- 
sented at  once,  is  yet  tolerably  well  conceived  by  the  union  of 
several  representations,  each  standing  for  part  of  its  attributes. 
On  thinking  of  a  piano,  there  first  rises  in  imagination  its 
visual  appearance,  to  which  are  instantly  added  (though  by 
separate  mental  acts)  the  ideas  of  its  remote  side  and  of  its 
solid  substance.  A  complete  conception,  however,  involves  the 
strings,  the  hammers,  the  dampers,  the  pedals ;  and  while 
successively  adding  these  to  the  conception,  the  attributes  first 
thought  of  lapse  mors  or  less  completely  out  of  consciousness. 
Nevertheless,  the  whole  group  constitutes  a  representation  of 
the  piano.  Now  as  in  this  case  we  form  a  definite  concept  of 
a  special  existence,  by  imposing  limits  and  conditions  in  suc- 
cessive acts ;  so,  in  the  converse  case,  by  taking  away  the 
limits  and  conditions  in  successive  acts,  we  form  an  indefinite 
notion  of  general  existence.  By  fusing  a  series  of  states  of 
consciousness,  in  each  of  which,  as  it  arises,  the  limitations 
and  conditions  are  abolished,  there  is  produced  a  consciousness 
of  something  unconditioned.  To  speak  more  rigor- 

ously : — this  consciousness  is  not  the  abstract  of  any  one 
group  of  thoughts,  ideas,  or  conceptions ;  but  it  is  the  abstract 
of  all  thoughts,  ideas,  or  conceptions.  That  which  is  common 
to  them  all,  and  cannot  be  got  rid  of,  is  what  we  predicate  by 
the  word  existence.  Dissociated  as  this  becomes  from  each  of 
its  modes  by  the  perpetual  change  of  those  modes,  it  remains 
as  an  indefinite  consciousness  of  something  constant  imder 
all  modes — of  being  apart  from  its  appearances.  The  dis- 
tinction we  feci  between  special  and  general  existence,  is  the 


/ 


/ 


96  THE   RELATIVITY  OF   ALL   KNOWLEDGE. 

distinction  between  that  wHch  is  changeable  in  us,  and  that 
which  is  unchangeable.  The  contrast  between  the  Absolute 
and  the  Eelative  in  our  minds,  is  really  the  contrast  between 
that  mental  element  which  exists  absolutely,  and  those  which 
exist  relatively. 

By  its  very  nature,  therefore,  this  ultimate  mental  element 
is  at  once  necessarily  indefinite  and  necessarily  indestructible. 
Our  consciousness  of  the  unconditioned  being  literally  the  un- 
conditioned consciousness,  or  raw  material  of  thought  to  which 
in  thinking  we  give  definite  forms,  it  follows  that  an  ever-pre- 
sent sense  of  real  existence  is  the  very  basis  of  our  intelligence. 
As  we  can  in  successive  mental  acts  get  rid  of  all  particular 
conditions  and  replace  them  by  others,  but  cannot  get  rid  of 
that  undifferentiated  substance  of  consciousness  which  is  con- 
ditioned anew  in  every  thought ;  there  ever  remains  with  us 
a  sense  of  that  which  exists  persistently  and  independently  of 
conditions.  At  the  same  time  that  by  the  laws  of  thought 
we  are  rigorously  prevented  from  forming  a. conception  of  ab- 
solute existence  ;  we  are  by  the  laws  of  thought  equally  pre- 
vented from  ridding  ourselves  of  the  consciousness  of  absolute 
existence :  this  consciousness  being,  as  we  here  see,  the  obverse 
of  our  self-consciousness.  And  since  the  only  possible  mea- 
sure of  relative  validity  among  our  beliefs,  is  the_degree  of 
their  persistence  in  opposition  to  the  efibrts  made  to  change 
them,  it  follows  that  this  which  persists  at  all  times,  under  all 
circimistances,  and  cannot  cease  until  consciousness  ceases,  has 
the  highest  validity  of  any. 

,To  sum  up  this  somewhat  too  elaborate  argument :  —  Wo 
have  seen  how  in  the  very  assertion  that  all  our  knowledge, 
properly  so  called,  is  Eelative,  there  is  involved  the  assertion 
that  there  exists  a  Non-relative.  We  have  seen  how,  in  each 
step  of  the  argument  by  which  this  doctrine  is  established, 
the  same  assumption  is  made.  "We  have  seen  how,  from  tho 
very  necessity  of  thinking  in  relations,  it  follows  that  the 
Relative  is  itself  inconceivable,  except  as  related  to  a  real 
Non-relative.     We  have  Been  that  unless  a  real  Non-relative 


HIE    IIEI.ATIVITY    OF    ALL    KNOWLEDGE.  97 

or  Absolute  be  postulalod,  the  Helative  itself  becomes  abso- 
lute ;  and  so  brings  the  argument  to  a  contradiction.  And  on 
contemplating  the  process  of  thought,  we  have  equally  seen 
liow  impossible  it  is  to  get  rid  of  the  .consciousness  of  an 
actuality  lying  behind  appearances ;  and  how,  from  this  im- 
possibility, results  our  indestnictible  belief  in  that  actuality. 


CHAPTEH  V. 


THE   RECONCILIATION. 


§  27.  Thus  do  all  lines  of  argunient  converge  to  the  same 
conclusion.  The  inference  reached  a  priori,  in  the  last  chapter, 
confirms  the  inferences  which,  in  the  two  preceding  chapters, 
were  reached  a  posteriori.  Those  imbecilities  of  the  under- 
standing that  disclose  themselves  when  we  try  to  answer  the 
highest  questions  of  objective  science,  subjective  science  proves 
to  be  necessitated  by  the  laws  of  that  understanding.  We  not 
only  learn  by  the  frustration  of  all  our  efforts,  that  the  reality 
underlying  appearances  is  totally  and  for  ever  inconceivable 
by  us ;  but  we  also  learn  why,  from  the  very  nature  of  our 
intelligence,  it  must  be  so.  Finally  we  discover  that  this 
conclusion,  which,  in  its  unqualified  form,  seems  opposed  to 
the  instinctive  convictions  of  mankind,  falls  into  harmony 
with  them  when  the  missing  qualification  is  supplied. 
Though  the  Absolute  cannot  in  any  manner  or  degree  be 
known,  in  the  strict  sense  of  knowing,  yet  we  find  that  its  po- 
sitive existence  is  a  necessary  datum  of  consciousness ;  that  so 
long  as  consciousness  continues,  we  cannot  for  an  instant  rid 
it  of  this  datum  ;  and  that  thus  the  belief  which  this  datun> 
constitutes,  has  a  higher  warrant  than  any  other  whatever. 

Here  then  is  that  basis  of  agreement  we  set  out  to  seek. 
This  conclusion  which  objective  science  illustrates,  and  sub- 
jective science  shows  to  be  unavoidable, — this  conclusion 
which,  while  it  in  the  main  expresses  the  doctrine  of  the  Eng- 


THE    RECONCILIATION.  99 

lish  school  of  philosopliy,  recognizes  also  a  soul  of  trutli  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  antagonist  German  school — this  conclusion 
which  brings  the  results  of  speculation  into  harmony  with  those 
of  common  sense  ;  is  also  the  conclusion  which  reconciles  Reli- 
gion with  Science.  Common  Sense  asserts  the  existence  of  a 
reality ;  Objective  Science  proves  that  this  reality  cannot  be 
what  we  think  it ;  Subjective  Science  shows  why  we  cannot 
think  of  it  as  it  is,  and  yet  are  compelled  to  think  of  it  as  ex- 
isting ;  and  in  this  assertion  of  a  Reality  utterly  inscrutable 
in  nature,  Religion  finds  an  assertion  essentially  coinciding 
with  her  own.  We  are  obliged  to- regard  every  phenomenon 
as  a  manifestation  of  some  Power  by  which  we  are  acted  upon; 
though  Omnipresence  is  unthinkable^  yet^  as  experience  dis- 
closes no  bounds  to  the  diffusion  of  phenomena,  we  are  unable 
to  think  of  limits  to  the  presence  of  this  Power ;  while  the 
criticisms  of  Science  teach  us  that  this  Power  is  Incompre- 
hensible. And  this  consciousness  of  an  Incomprehensible 
Power,  called  Omnipresent  from  inability  to  assign  its  limits, 
is  just  that  consciousness  on  which  Religion  dwells. 

To  understand  fully  how  real  is  the  reconciliation  thus 
reached,  it  will  be  needful  to  look  at  the  respective  attitudes 
that  Religion  and  Science  have  all.  along  maintained  towards 
this  conclusion.  We  must  observe  how,  all  along,  the  imper- 
fections of  each  have  been  undergoing  correction  by  the  other; 
and  how  the  final  out-come  of  their  mutual  criticLsms,  can  be 
nothing  else  than  an  entire  agreement  on  this  deepest  and 
widest  of  all  truths. 

§  28.  In  Religion  let  us  recognize  the  high  merit  that  from 
the  beginning  it  has  dimly  discerned  the  ultimate  verity,  and 
has  never  ceased  to  insist  upon  it.  In  its  earliest  and  crudest 
forms  it  manifested,  however  vaguely  and  inconsistently,  an 
intuition  forming  the  germ  of  this  highest  belief  in  which  all 
philosophies  finally  unite.  The  consciousness  of  a  mystery 
is  traceable  in  tlie  rudest  fetishism.  Each  higher  religious 
creed,  rejecting  those  definite  and  simple  interpretations  of 


100  THE   RECONCILIATION. 

Nature  previously  given,  has  become  more  religious  by  doing 
this.  As  the  quite  concrete  and  conceivable  agencies  alleged 
as  the  causes  of  things,  have  been  replaced  by  agencies  less 
concrete  and  conceivable,  the  element  of  mystery  has  of  ne- 
cessity become  more  predominant.  Through  all  its  successive 
phases  the  disappearance  of  those  positive  dogmas  by  which 
the  mystery  was  made  unmysterious,  has  formed  the  essential 
change  delineated  in  religious  history.  And  so  Religion  has 
ever  been  approximating  towards  that  complete  recognition  of 
this  mystery  which  is  its  goal. 

For  its  essentially  valid  belief,  Religion  has  constantly  done 
battle.  Gross  as  were  the  disguises  under  which  it  first 
espoused  this  belief,  and  cherishing  this  belief,  though  it  still 
is,  under  disfiguring  vestments,  it  has  never  ceased  to  main- 
tain and  defend  it.  It  has  everywhere  established  and  pro- 
pagated one  or  other  modification  of  th'e  doctrine  that  all  things 
are  manifestations  of  a  Power  that  transcends  our  knowledge. 
Though  from  age  to  age.  Science  has  continually  defeated  it 
wherever  they  have  come  in  collision,  and  has  obliged  it  to 
relinquish  one  or  more  of  its  positions  ;  it  has  still  held  the 
remaining  ones  with  undiminished  tenacity.  No  exposure  of 
the  logical  inconsistency  of  its  conclusions — no  proof  that  each 
of  its  particular  dogmas  was  absurd,  has  been  able  to  weaken 
its  allegiance  to  that  ultimate  verity  for  which  it  stands. 
After  criticism  has  abolished  all  its  arguments  and  reduced  it 
to  silence,  there  has  still  remained  with  it  the  indestructible 
consciousness  of  a  truth  which,  however  faulty  the  mode  in 
which  it  had  been  expressed,  was  yet  a  truth  beyond  cavil. 
To  this  conviction  its  adherence  has  been  substantially  sincere. 
And  for  the  guardianship  and  diffusion  of  it.  Humanity  has 
ever  been,  and  must  ever  be,  its  debtor. 

But  while  from  the  beginning,  Religion  has  had  the  all- 
essential  office  of  preventing  men  from  being  wholly  absorbed 
in  the  relative  or  immediate,  and  of  awakening  them  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  something  beyond  it,  this  office  has  been  but  very 
imperfectly  discharged.     Religion  has  ever  been  more -or  leas 


THE    RECOKCILIATION.  101 

irreligious;  and  it  continues  to  be  pamaily  irrebgioud  even 
now.  In  tlie  first  place,  as  implied  above,  it  has  all 

along  professed  to  have  some  knowledge  of  tbat  wbicb  tran- 
scends knowledge;  and  bas  so  contradicted  its  own  teachings. 
While  with  one  breath  it  has  asserted  that  the  Cause  of  aU 
things  passes  understanding,  it  has,  with  the  next  breath, 
asserted  that  the  Cause  of  all  things  possesses  such  or  such 
attributes — can  be  in  so  far  understood.  In  the  se- 

cond place,  while  in  great  part  sincere  in  its  fealty  to  the  great 
truth  it  has  had  to  uphold,  it  has  often  been  insincere,  and 
consequently  iriieligious,  in  maintaining  the  untenable  doc- 
trines by  which  it  has  obscured  this  great  truth.  Each  as- 
sertion respecting  the  nature,  acts,  or  motives  of  that  Power 
which  the  Universe  manifests  to  us,  has  been  repeatedly  called 
in  question,  and  proved  to  be  inconsistent  with  itself,  oi'  with 
accompanying  assertions.  Yet  each  of  them  has  been  age 
after  age  insisted  on,  in  spite  of  a  secret  consciousness  that  it 
would  not  bear  examination.  Just  as  though  unaware  that 
its  central  position  was  impregnable,  Heligion  has  obstinate- 
ly held  every  outpost  long  after  it  was  obviously  indefen- 
sible. And  this  naturally  introduces  us  to  the  third  and 
most  serious  form  of  irreligion  which  Religion  has  displayed  ; 
namely,  an  imperfect  belief  in  that  which  it  especially  professes 
to  believe.  How  truly  its  central  position  is  impregnable,  He- 
ligion has  never  adequately  realized.  In  the  devoutest  faith 
as  we  habitually  see  it,  there  Kes  hidden  an  innermost  core  of 
scepticism ;  and  it  is  this  scepticism  which  causes  that  dread 
of  inquiry  displayed  by  Religion  when  face  to  face  with  Science. 
Obliged  to  abandon  one  by  one  the  superstitions  it  once  ten* 
aciously  held,  and  daily  finding  its  cherished  beKefs  more  and 
more  shaken.  Religion  shows  a  secret  fear  that  all  things  may 
some  day  be  explained ;  and  thus  itself  betrays  a  lurking 
doubt  whether  that  Incomprehensible  Cause  of  which  it  is 
conscious,  is  really  incomprehensible. 

Of  Religion  then,  we  must  always  remember,  that  amid  its 
many  errors  and  corruptions  it  has  asserted  and  diffused  a 
6 


Id2  THE   RECONCILIATION. 

BjiprpiqC  ve^iiy,.  .".Fionxtlie  first,  tlie  recognition  of  this  supreme 
verity,  in  however  imperfect  a  manner,  has  been  its  vital  ele- 
ment ;  and  its  various  defects,  once  extreme  but  gradually  dimin- 
ishing, have  been  so  many  failures  to  recognize  in  full  that  which 
it  recognized  in  part.  The  truly  religious  element  of  Beligion 
has  always  been  good ;  that  which  has  proved  imtenable  in 
doctrine  and  vicious  in  practice,  has  been  its  irreligious  ele- 
ment ;  and  from  this  it  has  been  ever  undergoing  purification. 

§  29.  And  now  observe  that  all  along,  the  agent  which  has 
efiected  the  purification  has  been  Science.  We  habitually 
overlook  the  fact  that  this  has  been  one  of  its  functions. 
Religion  ignores  its  immense  debt  to  Science  ;  and  Science  is 
scarcely  at  all  conscious  how  much  E-cligion  owes  it.  Yet  it 
is  demonstrable  that  every  step  by  which  Beligion  has  pro- 
gressed from  its  first  low  conception  to  the  comparatively 
high  one  it  has  now  reached.  Science  has  helped  it,  or  rather 
forced  it,  to  take ;  and  that  even  now.  Science  is  urging  far- 
ther steps  in  the  same  direction. 

Using  the  word  Science  in  its  true  sense,  as  comprehending  all 
positive  and  definite  knowledge  of  the  order  existing  among 
surrounding  phenomena,  it  becomes  manifest  that  from  the 
outset,  the  discovery  of  an  established  order  has  modified  that 
conception  of  disorder,  or  undetermined  order,  which  under- 
lies every  superstition.  As  fast  as  experience  proves  that 
certain  familiar  changes  always  happen  in  the  same  sequence, 
there  begins  to  fade  from  the  mind  the  conception  of  a  special 
personality  to  whose  variable  will  they  were  before  ascribed. 
And  when,  step  by  step,  accumulating  observations  do  the  like 
with  the  less  familiar  changes,  a  similar  modification  of 
belief  takes  place  with  respect  to  them. 

While  this  process  seems  to  those  who  efiect,  and  those 
who  undergo  it,  an  anti-religious  one,  it  is  really  the  reverse. 
Instead  of  the  specific  comprehensible  agency  before  assigned, 
there  is  substituted  a  less  specific  and  less  comprehensible 
agency ;  and  though  this,  standing  in  opposition  to  the  pre- 


THE    RECONCILIATION.  103 

vious  one,  cannot  at  first  call  forth  tlie  same  feeling,  yet,  as 
being  less  compreiiensible,  it  must  eventually  call  forth  Hhis 
feeling  more  fully.  Take  an  instance.  Of  old  the  Sun 

was  regarded  as  the  chariot  of  a  god,  drawn  by  horses.  How 
far  the  idea  thus  grossly  expressed,  was  idealized,  we  need  not 
inquire.  It  suffices  to  remark  that  this  accounting  for  the 
apparent  motion  of  the  Sun  by  an  agency  like  certain  visible 
terrestrial  agencies,  reduced  a  daily  wonder  to  the  level  of  the 
commonest  intellect.  "When,  many  centuries  after,  Kepler  dis- 
covered that  the  planets  moved  round  the  Sun  in  ellipses  and 
described  equal  areas  ia  equal  times,  he  concluded  that  in 
each  planet  there  must  exist  a  spirit  to  guide  its  movements. 
Here  we  see  that  with  the  progress  of  Science,  there  had  dis- 
appeared the  idea  of  a  gross  mechanical  traction,  such  as  was 
first  assigned  in  the  case  of  the  Sun  ;  but  that  while  for  this 
there  was  substituted  an  indefinite  and  less-easHy  conceivable 
force,  it  was  still  thought  needful  to  assume  a  special  personal 
agent  as  a  cause  of  the  regular  irregularity  of  motion.  When, 
finally,  it  was  proved  that  these  planetary  revolutions  with 
all  their  variations  and  disturbances,  conformed  to  one  uni- 
versal law — when  the  presiding  spirits  which  Kepler  con- 
ceived were  set  aside,  and  the  force  of  gravitation  put  in  their 
place  ;  the  change  was  really  the  abolition  of  an  imaginable 
agency,  and  the  substitution  of  an  unimaginable  one.  For 
though  the  law  of  gravitation  is  within  our  mental  grasp,  it 
is  impossible  to  realize  in  thought  the  force  of  gravitation. 
Newton  himself  confessed  the  force  of  gravitation  to  be  in- 
comprehensible without  the  intermediation  of  an  ether ;  and, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  (§  18,)  the  assimiption  of  an  ether 
does   not  in  the  least  help   us.  Thus   it  is  with 

Science  in  general.  Its  progress  in  grouping  particular 
relations  of  phenomena  under  laws,  and  these  special  laws 
under  laws  more  and  more  general,  is  of  necessity  a  pro- 
gress to  causes  that  are  more  and  more  abstract.  And 
causes  more  and  more  abstract,  are  of  necessity  causes  less 
and  less  conceivable;    siace  the  formation  of  an  abstract 


104  THE  RECONCILIATION. 

conception  involves  tlie  dropping  of  certain  concrete  elements 
of  thouglit.  Hence  the  most  abstract  conception,  to  wliicli 
Science  is  ever  slowly  approacHng,  is  one  that  merges  into 
the  inconceivable  or  unthinkable,  by  the  dropping  of  all  con- 
crete elements  of  thought.  And  so  is  justified  the  assertion, 
that  the  beKefs  which  Science  has  forced  upon  Religion,  have 
been  intrinsically  more  religious  than  those  which  they  sup- 
planted. 

Science  however,  like  Eeligion,  has  but  very  incompletely 
fulfilled  its  office.  As  E-eligion  has  fallen  short  of  its  function 
in  so  far  as  it  has  been  irreligious  ;  so  has  Science  fallen  short 
of  its  function  in  so  far  as  it  has  been  unscientific.  Let  us 
note  the  several  parallelisms.  In  its  earlier  stages, 

Science,  while  it  began  to  teach  the  constant  relations  of 
phenomena,  and  so  discredited  the  belief  in  separate  per- 
sonalities as  the  causes  of  them,  itself  substituted  the  belief 
in  causal  agencies  which,  if  not  personal,  were  yet  concrete. 
When  certain  facts  were  said  to  show  "  Nature's  abhorrence 
of  a  vacuum,"  when  the  properties  of  gold  were  explained  as 
due  to  some  entity  called  "  aureity,"  and  when  the  phenomena 
of  life  were  attributed  to  "  a  vital  principle  ;  "  there  was  set 
up  a  mode  of  interpreting  the  facts,  which,  while  antagonistic 
to  the  religious  mode,  because  assigning  other  agencies,  was 
also  unscientific,  because  it  professed  to  know  that  about 
which  nothing  was  known.  Having  abandoned  these  meta- 
physical agencies — having  seen  that  they  were  not  inde- 
pendent existences,  but  merely  special  combinations  of  general 
causes.  Science  has  more  recently  ascribed  extensive  groups 
of  phenomena  to  electricity,  chemical  affinity,  and  other  like 
general  powers.  But  in  speaking  of  these  as  ultimate  and 
independent  entities,  Science  has  preserved  substantially 
the  same  attitude  as  before.  Accounting  thus  for  aU  phe- 
nomena, those  of  Life  and  Thought  included,  it  has  not  only 
maintained  its  seeming  antagonism  to  Eeligion,  by  alleging 
agencies  of  a  radically  unlike  kind  ;  but,  in  so  far  as  it  has 
tacitly  assumed  a  knowledge  of  these  agencies,  it  has  continued 


THE   RECONCILIATION.  105 

anscientific.  At  tlie  present  tune,  however,  the  most  advanced 
men  of  science  are  abandoning  these  later  conceptions,  as 
their  predecessors  abandoned  the  earlier  ones.  Magnetism, 
heat,  light  &c.,  which  were  awhile  since  spoken  of  as  so 
many  distinct  imponderables,  physicists  are  now  beginning 
to  regard  as  different  modes  of  manifestation  of  some  one 
universal  force ;  and  in  so  doing  are  ceasing  to  think  of 
tliis  force  as  comprehensible.  In  each  phase  of  its 

progress.  Science  has  thus  stopped  short  with  superficial 
solutions — has  unscientifically  neglected  to  ask  what  was 
the  nature  of  the  agents  it  so  familiarly  invoked;  Though 
in  each  succeeding  phase  it  has  gone  a  little  deeper,  and 
merged  its  supposed  agents  in  more  general  and  abstract 
ones,  it  has  still,  as  before,  rested  content  with  these  as 
if  they  were  ascertained  realities.  And  this,  which  has 
all  along  been  the  unscientific  characteristic  of  Science,  has 
all  along  been  a  part  cause  of  its  conflict  with  Eeligion. 

§  30.  We  see  then  that  from  the  first,  the  faults  of  both 
Religion  and  Science  have  been  the  faults  of  imperfect  de- 
velopment.. Originally  a  mere  rudiment,  each  has  been 
growing  into  a  more  complete  form  ;  the  vice  of  each  has  in 
aU  times  been  its  incompleteness ;  the  disagreements  between 
them  have  throughout  been  nothing  more  than  the  con- 
sequences of  their  incompleteness ;  and  as  they  reach  their 
final  forms,  they  come  into  entire  harmony. 

The.  progress  of  intelligence  has  throughout  been  dual. 
Though  it  has  not  seemed  so  to  those  who  made  it,  every  step 
in  advance  has  been  a  step  towards  both  the  natural  and  the 
supernatural.  The  better  interpretation  of  each  phenomenon 
has  been,  on  the  one  hand,  the  rejection  of  a  cause  that  was 
relatively  conceivable  in  its  nature  but  unknown  in  the  order 
of  its  actions,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  adoption  of  a  cause 
that  was  known  in  the  order  of  its  actions  but  relatively  in- 
conceivable in  its  nature.  The  first  advance  out  of  universal 
fetishism,  manifestly  involved  the  conception  of  agencies  lesa 


106  THE    RECONCILIATION 

assimilable  to  the  familiar  agencies  of  men  and  animals,  and 
tlierefore  less  understood ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  such  newly- 
conceived  agencies  in  so  far  as  they  were  distinguished  by 
their  imiform  effects,  were  better  understood  than  those  they 
replaced.  All  subsequent  advances  display  the  same  double 
result.  Every  deeper  and  more  general  power  arrived  at  as 
a  cause  of  phenomena,  has  been  at  once  less  comprehensible 
than  the  special  ones  it  superseded,  in  the  sense  of  being  less 
definitely  representable  in  thought ;  while  it  has  been  more 
comprehensible  in  the  sense  that  its  actions  have  been  more 
completely  predicable.  The  progress  has  thus  been  as  much 
towards  the  establishment  of  a  positively  unknown  as  towards 
the  establishment  of  a  positively  known.  Though  as  know- 
ledge approaches  its.  culmination,  every  unaccountable  and 
seemingly  supernatural  fact,  is  brought  into  the  category  of 
facts  that  are  accountable  or  natural ;  yet,  at  the  same  time, 
all  accountable  or  natural  facts  are  proved  to  be  in  their  ulti- 
mate genesis  unaccountable  and  supernatural.  And  so  there 
arise  two  antithetical  states  of  mind,  answering  to  the  op- 
posite sides  of  that  existence  about  which  we  think.  While 
our  consciousness  of  Nature  under  the  one  aspect  constitutes 
Science,  our  consciousness  of  it  under  the  other  aspect  con- 
stitutes Eeligion. 

Otherwise  contemplating  the  facts,  we  may  say  that  Reli- 
gion and  Science  have  been  undergoing  a  slow  difierentiation ; 
and  that  their  ceaseless  conflicts  have  been  due  to  the  imper- 
fect separation  of  their  spheres  and  functions.  Religion  has, 
from  the  first,  struggled  to  unite  more  or  less  science  with  its 
nescience ;  Science  has,  from  'the  first,  kept  hold  of  more  or 
less  nescience  as  though  it  were  a  part  of  science.  Each  has 
been  obliged  gradually  to  relinquish  that  territory  which  it 
wrongly  claimed,  while  it  has  gained  from  the  other  that  to  which 
It  had  a  right ;  and  the  antagonism  between  them  has  bewi 
an  inevitable  accompaniment  of  this  process.  A  more  specific 
statement  will  make  this  clear.  Religion,  though  at 

the  outset  it  asserted  a  mystery,  also  made  numerous  definite 


THE    RECONCILIATION.  107 

Bssertions  respecting  this  mystery — professed  to  know  its  na- 
ture ift  the  minutest  detail ;  and  in  so  far  as  it  claimed  posi- 
tive knowledge,  it  trespassed  upon  the  province  of  Science. 
From  the  times  of  early  mythologies,  when  such  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  mystery  was  alleged,  down  to  our  own 
days,  when  but  a  few  abstract  and  vague  propositions  are 
maintained,  ReKgion  has  been  compelled  by  Science  to  give 
up  one  after  another  of  its  dogmas — of  those  assumed  cogni- 
tions which  it  could  not  substantiate.  In  the  mean  time, 
Science  substituted  for  the  personalities  to  which  HeKgion 
ascribed  phenomena,  certain  metaphysical  entities ;  and  in 
doing  this  it  trespassed  on  the  province  of  Religion  ;  since  it 
classed  among  the  things  which  it  comprehended,  certain 
forms  of  the  incomprehensible.  Partly  by  the  criticisms  of 
Kcligion,  which  has  occasionally  called  in  question  its  assump- 
tions, and  partly  as  a  consequence  of  spontaneous  growth, 
Science  has  been  obliged  to  abandon  these  attempts  to  include 
within  the  boimdaries  of  knowledge  that  which  cannot  be 
known ;  and  has  so  yielded  up  to  Religion  that  which  of 
right  belonged  to   it.  So  long  as  this  process  of 

differentiation  is  incomplete,  more  or  less  of  antagonism 
must  continue.  Gradually  as  the  limits  of  possible  cognition 
are  established,  the  causes  of  conflict  will  diminish.  And 
a  permanent  peace  wiU  be  reached  when  Science  becomes 
fully  convinced  that  its  explanations  are  proximate  and  re- 
lative; while  Religion  becomes  fully  convinced  that  the 
mystery  it  contemplates  is  idtimate  and  absolute. 

Religion  and  Science  are  therefore  necessarj'  correlatives. 
As  already  hinted,  they  stand  respectively  for  those  two  anti- 
thetical modes  of  consciousness  which  cannot  exist  asunder. 
A  known  cannot  be  thought  of  apart  from  an*  unknown  ;  nor 
can  an  unkno^vn  be  thought  of  apart  from  a  known.  And  by 
consequence  neither  can  become  more  distinct  without  giving 
greater  distinctness  to  the  other.  To  carry  further  a  meta- 
phor before  used, — they  are  the  positive  and  negative  poles  of 


108  THE   RECONCILIATION. 

thought ;  of  which  neither  can  gain  in  intensity  without  in- 
creasing the  intensity  of  the  other. 

§  31.  Thus  the  consciousness  of  an  Inscrutahle  Power  mani- 
fested to  us  through  all  phenomena,  has  been  growing  ever 
clearer ;  and  must  eventually  be  freed  from  its  imperfections. 
The  certainty  that  on  the  one  hand  such  a  Power  exists,  while 
on  the  other  hand  its  nature  traYiscends  intuition  and  is  be- 
yond imagination,  is  the  certainty  towards  which  intelligence 
has  from  the  fiist  been  progressing.  To  this  conclusion 
Science  inevitably  arrive"^'  a^  it  reaches  its  confines ;  while  to 
this  conclusion  Religion  is  irresistibly  driven  by  criticism. 
And  satisfying  as  it  does  the  demands  of  the  most  rigorous 
logic  at  the  same  time  that  it  gives  the  religious  sentiment 
the  widest  possible  sphere  of  action,  it  is  the  conclusion  we 
are  bound  to  accept  without  reserve  or  qualification. 

Some  do  indeed  allege  that  though  the  Ultimate  Cause  of 
things  cannot  really  be  thought  of  by  us  as  having  specified 
attributes,  it  is  yet  incumbent  upon  us  to  assert  these  attri- 
butes. Though  the  forms  of  our  consciousness  are  such  that 
the  Absolute  cannot  in  any  manner  or  degree  be  brought 
within  them,  we  are  nevertheless  told  that  we  must  represent 
the  Absolute  to  ourselves  under  these  forms.  As  writes  Mr 
Mansel,  iii  the  work  from  which  I  have  already  quoted  largely 
— "  It  is  our  duty,  then,  to  think  of  God  as  personal ;  and  it 
is  our  duty  to  believe  that  He  is  infinite." 

That  this  is  not  the  conclusion  here  adopted,  needs  hardly 
be  said.  If  there  be  any  meaning  in  the  foregoing  argu- 
ments, duty  requires  us  neither  to  afiirm  nor  deny  personality. 
Our  duty  is  to  submit  ourselves  with  all  humility  to  the 
established  limits  of  our  intelligence ;  arid  not  perversely  to 
rebel  against  them.  Let  those  who  can,  believe  that  there  is 
eternal  war  set  between  our  intellectual  faculties  and  our  mo- 
ral obligations.  I  for  one,  admit  no  such  radical  vice  in  the 
constitution  of  things. 


THE  RECONCILIATION.  109 

This  which  to  most  will  seem  an  essentially  irreligious  po- 
sition, is  an  essentially  religious  one — nay  is  the  religious  one, 
to  which,  .as  already  shown,  all  others  are  but  approximations. 
In  the  estimate  it  implies  of  the  Ultimate  Cause,  it  does  not 
fall  short  of  the  alternative  position,  but  exceeds  it.  Those 
who  espouse  this  alternative  position,  make  the  erroneous  as- 
sumption that  the  choice  is  between  personality  and  some- 
thing lower  than  personality  ;  whereas  the  choice  is  rather 
between  personality  and  something  higher.  Is  it  not  just 
possible  that  there  is  a  mode  of  being  as  much  transcending 
Intelligence  and  Will,  as  these  transcend  mechanical  motion  ? 
It  is  true  that  we  are  totally  imable  to  conceive  any  such 
higher  mode  of  being.  But  this  is  not  a  reason  for  question- 
ing its  existence ;  it  is  rather  the  reverse.  Have  we  net  seen 
how  utterly  incompetent  our  minds  are  to  form  even  an  ap- 
proach tcf  a  conception  of  that  which  underKes  all  phe- 
nomena ?  Is  it  not  proved  that  this  incompetency  is  the  incom- 
petency of  the  Conditioned  to  grasp  the  Unconditioned  ?  Does 
it  not  follow  that  the  Ultimate  Cause  cannot  in  any  respect  be 
conceived  by  us  because  it  is  in  every  respect  greater  than  can 
be  conceived?  And  may  we  not  therefore  rightly  refrain 
from  assigning  to  it  any  attributes  whatever,  on  the  ground 
that  such  attributes,  derived  as  they  must  be  from  our  own 
natures,  are  not  elevations  but  degradations  ?  Indeed  it  seems 
somewhat  strange  that  men  should  suppose  the  highest  wor- 
ship to  lie  in  assimilating  the  object  of  their  worship  to  them- 
selves. Not  in  asserting  a  transcendant  difference,  but  in  as- 
serting a  certain  likeness,  consists  the  element  of  their  creed 
which  they  think  essential.  It  is  true  that  from  the  time 
when  the  rudest  savages  imagined  the  causes  of  all  things  to 
be  creatures  of  flesh  and  blood  like  themselves,  doT^^l  to  our 
o\^Ti  time,  the  degree  of  assumed  likeness  has  been  diminishing. 
But  though  a  bodily  form  and  substance  similar  to  that  of  man, 
has  long  siace  ceased,  among  cultivated  races,  to  be  a  literally- 
conceived  attribute  of  the  Ultimate  Cause— though  the  grosser 
human  desires  have  been  also  rejected  as  unfit  elements  of  the 


110  THE    RECONCILIATION. 

conception — thougli  there  is  some  hesitation  in  ascribing  even 
the  higher  human  feelings,  save  in  greatly  idealized  shapes ; 
yet  it  is  stiU  thought  not  only  proper,  but  imperative,  to 
ascribe  the  most  abstract  qualities  of  our  nature.  To  think  of 
the  Creative  Power  as  in  all  respects  anthropomorphous,  is  now 
considered  impious  by  men  who  yet  hold  themselves  bound  to 
think  of  the  Creative  Power  as  in  some  respects  anthropomor- 
phous ;  and  who  do  not  see  that  the  one  proceeding  is  but  an 
evanescent  form  of  the  other.  And  then,  most  marvellous  of 
all,  this  course  is  persisted  in  even  by  those  who  contend  that 
we  are  wholly  unable  to  frame  any  conception  whatever  of 
the  Creative  Power.  After  it  has  been  shown  that  every  sup- 
position respecting  the  genesis  of  the  Universe  commits  us  to 
alternative  impossibilities  of  thought  —  after  it  has  been 
shown  that  each  attempt  to  conceive  real  existence  ends  in  an 
intellectual  suicide— after  it  has  been  shown  why,  by  the  very 
constitution  of  our  minds,  we  are  eternally  debarred  from 
thinking  of  the  Absolute ;  it  is  still  asserted  that  we  ought 
to  think  of  the  Absolute  thus  and  thus.  In  all  imaginable 
ways  we  find  thrust  upon  us  the  truth,  that  we  are  not  per- 
mitted to  know — nay  are  not  even  permitted  to  conceive — 
that  Reality  which  is  behind  the  veil  of  Appearance;  and 
yet  it  is  said  to  be  our  duty  to  believe  (and  in  so  far  to  con- 
ceive) that  this  Reality  exists  in  a  certain  defined  manner. 
Shall  we  call  this  reverence?  or  shall  we  call  it  the  reverse  ? 
Volumes  might  be  written  upon  the  impiety  of  the  pious. 
Through  the  printed  and  spoken  thoughts  of  religious  teachers, 
may  almost  everywhere  be  traced  a  professed  familiarity  with 
the  ultimate  mystery  of  things,  which,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
seems  anything  but  congruous  with  the  accompanying  expres- 
sions of  humility.  And  surprisingly  enough,  those  tenets  which 
most  clearly  display  this  familiarity,  are  those  insisted  upon 
an  forming  the  vital  elements  of  religious  belief  The  attitude 
thus  assumed,  can  be  fitly  represented  only  by  further  develop- 
ing a  simile  long  current  in  theological  controversies  —  the 
liimile  of  the  watch.     If  for  a  moment  we  made  the  grotesque 


THE    RECONCILIATION.  Ill 

fiupijosition  that  the  tickings  and  other  movements  of  a  watch 
constituted  a  kind  of  consciousness ;  and  that  a  watch  po:ses8ed 
of  such  a  consciousness,  insisted  on  regarding  the  watchmaker's 
actions  as  determined  like  its  own  by  springs  and  escapements ; 
we  should  simply  complete  a  parallel  of  which  religious 
teachers  think  much.  And  were  we  to  suppose  that  a  watch 
not  only  formulated  the  cause  of  its  existence  in  these 
mechanical  terms,  but  held  that  watches  were  bound  out  of 
reverence  so  to  formulate  this  cause,  and  even  vituperated,  as 
atheistic  watches,  any  that  did  not  venture  so  to  formulate  it ; 
we  should  merely  illustrate  the  presumption  of  theologians  by 
carrying  their  own  argument  a  step  further.  A  few 

extracts  will  bring  home  to  the  reader  the  justice  of  this 
comparison.  "We  are  told,  for  example,  by  one  of  high 
repute  among  religious  thinkers,  that  the  Universe  is  **  the 
manifestation  and  abode  of  a  Free  Mind,  like  our  own  ^  em- 
]:)odying  His  personal  thought  in  its  adjustments,  realizing 
His  own  ideal  in  its  phenomena,  just  as  we  express  our  inner 
faculty  and  character  through  the  natural  language  of  an  ex- 
ternal life.  In  this  view,  we  interpret  Nature  by  Humanity ; 
we  find  the  key  to  her  aspects  in  such  purposes  and  affections 
as  our  own  consciousness  enables  us  to  conceive ;  we  look 
everywhere  for  physical  signals  of  an  ever-living  Will ;  and 
decipher  the  universe  as  the  autobiography  of  an  Infinite 
Spirit,  repeating  itself  in  miinature  within  our  Finite  Spirit." 
The  same  writer  goes  stiU  further.  He  not  only  thus  parallels 
the  assimilation  of  the  watchmaker  to  the  watch, — he  not  only 
thinks  the  created  can  "  decipher  "  "  the  autobiography  "  of 
the  Creating ;  but  he  asserts  that  the  necessary  limits  of  the 
one  are  necessary  limits  of  the  other.  The  primary  qualities 
of  bodies,  he  says,  "  belong  eternally  to  fhe  material  datum  ob- 
jective to  God"  and  control  his  acts;  while  the  secondary 
ones  are  "  products  of  pure  Inventive  Heason  and  Determining 
Will" — constitute  *' the  realm  of  Divine  originality."  *  *  * 
"■  While  on  tliis  Secondary  field  His  Mind  and  om-s  are  thus 
contrasted,  they  meet  in  resemblance  again  upon  the  Primary : 


112  THE   RECONCILIATION. 

for  the  evolutions  of  deductive  Reason  there  is  but  one  track 
possible  to  all  intelligences  ;  no  merum  arhitrium  can  inter- 
change the  false  and  .true,  or  make  more  than  one  geometry, 
one  scheme  of  pure  Physics,  for  all  worlds  ;  and  the  Omnipo- 
tent Architect  Himself,  in  realizing  the  Kosmical  conception, 
in  shaping  the  orbits  out  of  immensity  and  determining  seasons 
out  of  eternity,  could  but  follow  the  laws  of  curvature,  mea- 
sure and  proportion."  That  is  to  say,  the  Ultimate  Cause  is  like 
a  human  mechanic,  not  only  as  "shaping"  the  "material  datum 
objective  to "  Him,  but  also  as  being  obliged  to  conform  to 
the  necessary  properties  of  that  datum."  Nor  is  this  all. 
There  follows  some  account  of  "  the  Divine  psychology,"  to 
the  extent  of  sajdng  that  "  we  learn  "  "  the  character  of  God 
— the  order  of  affections  in  Him  "  from  "  the  distribution  of 
authority  in  the  hierarchy  of  our  impulses."  In  other  words, 
it  is  alleged  that  the  Ultimate  Cause  has  desires  that  are  to  bo 
classed  as  higher  and  lower  like  our  own.*  Every 

one  has  heard  of  the  king  who  wished  he  had  been  present  at 
the  creation  of  the  world,  that  he  might  have  given  good  ad- 
vice. He  was  humble  however  compared  with  those  who  pro- 
fess to  understand  not  only  the  relation  of  the  Creating  to  the 
created,  but  also,  how  the  Creating  is  constituted.  And  yet 
this  transcendent  audacity,  which  claims  to  penetrate  the 
secrets  of  the  Power  manifested  to  us  through  all  existence — 
nay  even  to  stand  behind  that  Power  and  note  the  conditions 
to  its  action— this  it  is  which  passes  current  as  piety  !  !May 
we  not  without  hesitation  affirm  that  a  sincere  recognition  of 
the  truth  that  our  own  and  all  other  existence  is  a  mystery 
absolutely  and  for  ever  beyond  our  comprehension,  contains 
more  of  true  religion  than  all  the  dogmatic  theology  ever 
written  r 

Meanwhile  let  us  recognize  whatever  of  permanent  good 
there  is  in  these  persistent  attemj^ts  to  frame  conceptions  of 
that  which  cannot  be  conceived.     From  the  beginning  it  has 

♦  These  extracts  are  from  an  article  cutitlcd  "  Nature  and  God,"  published  in 
the  National  Review  fur  October,  I860. 


THE    RECONCILIATION.  113 

boen  only  through,  the  successive  failures  of  such  conceptions 
to  satisfy  the  mind,  that  higher  and  higher  ones  have  been 
gradually  reached;  and  doubtless,  the  conceptions  now  current 
are  indispensable  as  transitional  modes  of  thought.  Even 
more  than  this  may  be  williQgly  conceded.  It  is  possible, 
nay  probable,  that  under  their  most  abstract  forms,  ideas  of 
this  order  wiU  always  continue  tp  occupy  the  background  of 
our  consciousness.  Very  likely  there  will  ever  remain  a  need 
to  give  shape  to  that  indefinite  sense  of  an  Ultimate  Existence, 
which  forms  the  basis  of  our  intelligence.  We  shall  always 
be  under  the  necessity  of  contemplating  it  as  so7ne  mode  of  be- 
ing ;  that  is — of  representing  it  to  ourselves  in  some  form  of 
thought,  however  vague.  And  we  shall  not  err  in  doing'thifi 
so  long  as  we  treat  every  notion  we  thus  frame  as  merely  a 
symbol,  utterly  without  resemblance  to  that  for  which  it 
stands.  Perhaps  the  constant  formation  of  such  s}Tnbols  and 
constant  rejection  of  them  as  inadequate,  may  be  hereafter, 
as  it  has  hitherto  been,  a  means  of  discipline.  Perpetually  to 
construct  ideas  requiring  the  utmost  stretch  of  our  faculties, 
and  perpetually  to  find  that  such  ideas  must  be  abandoned  as 
futile  imaginations,  may  realize  to  us  more  fully  than  any  other 
course,  the  greatness  of  that  which  we  vainly  strive  to  grasp. 
Such  efibrts  and  failures  may  serve  to  maintain  in.  our  minds 
a  due  sense  of  the  incommensurable  difierence  between  the 
Conditioned  and  the  Unconditioned.  By  continually  seeking 
to  know  and  being  coutinually  thrown  back  with  a  deepened 
conviction  of  the  impossibility  of  knowing,  we  may  keep  alive 
the  consciousness  that  it  is  alike  our  highest  wisdom  and  our 
highest  duty  to  regard  that  through  which  all  things  exist  as 
The  Unknowable. 

§  32.  An  immense  majority  will  refuse  with  more  or  less  of 
indignation,  a  belief  seeming  to  them  so  shadowy  and  indefinite. 
Having  always  embodied  the  Ultimate  Cause  so  far  as  was 
needful  to  its  mental  realization,  they  must  necessarily  resent 
the  substitution  of  an  Ultimate  Cause  which  cannot  be  men- 


114  THE   RECONCILTATION. 

tally  realized  at  all.  "  You  offer  us,"  tliey  say,  "  an  unthink- 
able abstraction  in  place  of  a  Being  towards  wbom  we  may 
entertain  definite  feelings.  Though,  we  are  told  that  the  Ab- 
solute is  real,  yet  since  we  are  not  allowed  to  conceive  it,  it 
might  as  well  be  a  pure  negation.  Instead  of  a  Power  which 
we  can  regard  as  haying  some  sympathy  with  us,  you  would 
have  us  contemplate  a  Power  to  which  no  emotion  whatever 
can  be  ascribed.  And  so  we  are  to  be  deprived  of  the  very 
Bubstance  of  our  faith." 

This  kind  of  protest  of  necessity  accompanies  every  change 
from  a  lower  creed  to  a  higher.  The  belief  in  a  community 
of  nature  between  himself  and  the  object  of  his  worship,  has 
always  been  to  man  a  satisfactory  one ;  and  he  has  always 
accepted  with  reluctance  those  successively  less  concrete  con- 
ceptions which  have  been  forced  upon  him.  Doubtless,  in  all 
times  and  places,  it  has  consoled  the  barbarian  to  think  of  his 
deities  as  so  exactly  like  himself  in  nature,  that  they  could  be 
bribed  by  offerings  of  food ;  and  the  assurance  that  deities 
could  not  be  so  propitiated,  must  have  been  repugnant,  be- 
cause it  deprived  him  of  an  easy  method  of  gaining  super- 
natural protection.  To  the  Greeks  it  was  manifestly  a  source 
of  comfort  that  on  occasions  of  difficulty  they  could  obtain, 
through  oracles,  the  advice  of  their  gods, — nay,  might  even 
get  the  personal  aid  of  their  gods  in  battle  ;  and  it  was  pro- 
bably a  very  genuine  anger  which  they  visited  upon  philo- 
sophers who  called  in  question  these  gross  ideas  of  their  my- 
thology. A  religion  which  teaches  the  Hindoo  that  it  is 
impossible  to  purchase  eternal  happiness  by  placing  himself 
under  the  wheel  of  Juggernaut,  can  scarcely  fail  to  seem  a 
cruel  one  to  him;  since  it  deprives  him  of  the  pleasurable 
consciousness  that  he  can  at  will  exchange  miseries  for  joys. 
Nor  is  it  less  clear  that  to  our  Catholic  ancestors,  the  behofs 
that  crimes  could  be  compounded  for  by  the  building  of 
churches,  that  their  own  pmiishments  and  those  of  their  re- 
latives could  bo  abridged  by  the  saying  of  masses,  and  that 
divine  aid  or  forgiveness  might  be  gained  through  the  inter- 


THE    RECONCILIATION.  115 

cession  of  saints,  were  highly  solacing  ones ;  and  that  Pro- 
testantism, in  substituting  the  conception  of  a  God  so  com- 
paratively unlike  ourselves  as  not  to  be  influenced  by  sucli 
methods,  must  have  appeared  to  them  hard  and  cold. 
Naturally,  therefore,  we  must  expect  a  further  step  in  the 
same  direction  to  meet  with  a  similar  resistance  from  outraged 
sentiments.  No  mental  revolution  can  be  accomplished 

without  more  or  less  of  laceration.  Be  it  a  change  of  habit  or 
a  change  of  conviction,  it  must,  if  the  habit  or  conviction  be 
strong,  do  violence  to  some  of  the  feeKngs ;  and  these  must 
of  course  oppose  it.  For  long-experienced,  and  therefore 
definite,  sources  of  satisfaction,  have  to  be  substituted  sources 
of  satisfaction  that  have  not  been  experienced,  and  are 
therefore  indefinite.  That  which  is  relatively  well  known 
and  real,  has  to  be  given  up  for  that  which  is  relatively 
unknown  and  ideal.  And  of  course  such  an  exchange  cannot 
be  made  without  a  conflict  involving  pain.  Espe- 

cially then  must  there  arise  a  strong  antagonism  to 
any  alteration  in  so  deep  and  ^dtal  a  conception  as  that 
with  which  we  are  here  dealing.  Underlying,  as  this 
conception  does,  all  others,  a  modification  of  it  threatens  to 
reduc3  the  superstructure  to  ruins.  Or  to  change  the 
metaphor — being  the  root  with  which  are  connected  our 
ideas  of  goodness,  rectitude,  or  duty,  it  appears  impossible 
that  it  should  be  transfonned  without  causing  these  to 
Avither  away  and  die.  The  whole  higher  part  of  the  nature 
almost  of  necessity  takes  up  arms  against  a  change  which,  by 
destroying  the  established  associations  of  thought,  seems 
to  eradicate  morahty. 

This  is  by  no  means  all  that  has  to  be  said  for  such  pro- 
tests. There  is  a  much  deeper  meaning  in  them.  They  do 
not  simply  express  the  natural  repugnance  to  a  revolution  of 
belief,  here  made  specially  intense  by  the  vital  importance  of 
tlie  belief  to  be  revolutionized ;  but  they  also  express  an 
instinctive  adhesion  to  a  belief  that  is  in  one  sense  the  best 
—the  best  for  those  who  thus  cling  to  it,  though  not  ah- 


116  THE    RECONCILIATION. 

stractedly  tKe  best.  For  here  let  me  remark  that 

what  were  above  spoken  of  as  the  imperfections  of  Religion, 
at  first  great  but  gradually  diminishing,  have  been  imperfec- 
tions only  as  measured  by  an  absolute  standard  ;  and  not  as 
measured  by  a  relative  one.  Speaking  generally,  the  religion 
current  in  each  age  and  among  each  people,  has  been  as 
near  an  approximation  to  the  truth  as  it  was  then  and  there 
possible  for  men  to  receive :  the  more  or  less  concrete  forma 
in  which  it  has  embodied  the  truth,  have  simply  been  the 
means  of  making  thinkable  what  would  otherwise  have  been 
unthinkable ;  and  so  have  for  the  time  being  served  to 
increase  its  impressiveness.  If  we  consider  the  con- 

ditions of  the  case,  we  shall  find  this  to  be  an  unavoidable 
conclusion.  During  each  stage  of  evolution,  men  must  think 
in  such  terms  of  thought  as  they  possess.  While  all  the 
conspicuous  changes  of  which  they  can  observe  the  origins, 
have  men  and  animals  as  antecedents,  they  are  unable  to 
think  of  antecedents  in  general  under  any  other  shapes ;  and 
hence  creative  agencies  are  of  necessity  conceived  by  them 
in  these  shapes.  If  during  this  phase,  these  concrete  con- 
ceptions were  taken  from  them,  and  the  attempt  made  to 
give  them  comparatively  abstract  conceptions,  the  result 
would  be  to  leave  their  minds  with  none  at  all ;  since  the 
substituted  ones  could  not  be  mentally  represented.  Simi- 
larly with  every  successive  stage  of  religious  belief,  down  to 
the  last.  Though,  as  accumulating  experiences  slowly  mo- 
dify the  earliest  ideas  of  causal  personalities,  there  grow  up 
more  general  and  vague  ideas  of  them ;  yet  these  cannot  be 
at  once  replaced  by  others  still  more  general  and  vague. 
Further  experiences  must  supply  the  needful  further  abstrac- 
tions, before  the  mental  void  left  by  the  destruction  of  such 
Inferior  ideas  can  be  filled  by  ideas  of  a  superior  order.  Aiid 
at  the  present  time,  the  refusal  to  abandon  a  relatively  concrete 
notion  for  a  relatively  abstract  one,  implies  the  inability  to 
frame  the  relatively  abstract  one ;  and  so  proves  that  the 
change   would  be  premature   and   injurious.  StLQ 


THE   RECONCILIATION.  117 

more  clearly  shall  we  see  tlie  injuriousness  of  any  such 
premature  change,  on  observing  that  the  effects  of  a  belief 
upon  conduct  must  be  diminished  in  proportion  as  the  vivid- 
ness with  which  it  is  realized  becomes  less.  Evils  and 
benefits  akin  to  those  which  the  savage  has  personally  felt, 
or  learned  from  those  who  have  felt  them,  are  the  only  evils 
and  benefits  he  can  understand ;  and  these  must  be  looked 
for  as  coming  in  ways  like  those  of  which  he  has  had  ex- 
perience. His  deities  must  be  imagined  to  have  like  mo- 
tives and  passions  and  methods  with  the  beings  around  him ; 
for  motives  and  passions  and  methods  of  a  higher  character, 
being  unknown  to  him,  and  in  great  measure  unthinkable  by 
him,  cannot  be  so  realized  in  thought  as  to  influence  his 
deeds.  During  every  phase  of  civilization,  the  actions  of 
the  Unseen  Reality,  as  well  as  the  resulting  rewards  and 
punishments,  being  conceivable  only  in  such  forms  as  ex- 
perience furnishes,  to  supplant  them  by  higher  ones  before 
wider  experiences  have  made  higher  ones  conceivable,  is  to 
set  up  vague  and  uninfluential  motives  for  definite  and  in- 
fluential ones.  Even  now,  for  the  great  mass  of  men, 
unable  through  lack  of  culture  to  trace  out  with  due  clear- 
ness those  good  and  bSd  consequences  which  conduct  brings 
•round  through  the  established  order  of  tho  Unknowable,  it  is 
needful  that  there  should  be  vividly  depicted  future  torments 
and  future  joys — ^pains  and  pleasures  of  a  definite  kind,  produced 
in  a  manner  direct  and  simple  enough  to  be  clearly  ima- 
gined, l^ay  still  more  must  be  conceded.  Few  if  any 
are  as  yet  fitted  wholly  to  dispense  with  such  conceptions  as  are 
current.  The  highest  abstractions  take  so  great  a  mental  power 
to  realize  with  any  vividness,  and  are  so  inoperative  upon  con- 
duct unless  they  are  vividly  realized,  that  their  regulative  ef- 
fects must  for  a  long  period  to  come  be  appreciable  on  but  a 
small  minority.  To  see  clearly  how  a  right  or  wrong  act 
generates  consequences,  internal  and  external,  that  go  on 
branching  out  more  widely  as  years  progress,  requires  a  rare 
power  of  analysis.     To  mentally  represent  even  a  single  series 


118 


THE   RECONCILIATION. 


of  these  consequences,  as  it  stretclies  out  into  the  remote  future, 
requires  an  equally  rare  power  of  imagination.  And  to  esti- 
mate these  consequences  in  their  totality,  ever  multiplying  in 
number  while  diminishing  in  intensity,  requires  a  grasp  of 
thought  possessed  by  none.  Yet  it  is  only  by  such  analysis, 
such  imagination,  and  such  grasp,  that  canduct  can  be  right- 
ly guided  in  the  absence  of  all  other  control :  only  so  can  ul- 
timate rewards  and  penalties  be  made  to  outweigh  proximate 
pains  and  pleasures.  Indeed,  were  it  not  that  throughout  the 
progress  of  the  race,  men's  experiences  of  the  effects  of  conduct 
have  been  slowly  generalized  into  principles — were  it  not  that 
these  principles  have  been  from  generation  to  generation  in- 
sisted on  by  parents,  upheld  by  public  opinion,  sanctified  by  re- 
ligion, and  enforced  by  threats  of  eternal  damnation  for  dis- 
obedience—  were  it  not  that  under  these  potent  influences, 
habits  have  been  modified,  and  the  feelings  proper  to  them 
made  innate  —  were  it  not,  in  short,  that  we  have  l)een 
rendered  in  a  considerable  degree  organically  moral ;  it  is 
certain  that  disastrous  results  would  ensue  from  the  removal 
of  those  strong  and  distinct  motives  which  the  current  belief 
supplies.  Even  as  it  is,  those  who  relinquish  the  faith  in 
which  they  have  been  brought  up,  for  £his  most  abstract  faith 
in  which  Science  and  Religion  unite,  may  not  uncommonly 
fail  to  act  up  to  their  convictions.  Left  to  their  organic  mor- 
ality, enforced  only  by  general  reasonings  imperfectly  wrought 
out  and  diflQ.cult  to  keep  before  the  mind,  their  defects  of 
nature  will  often  come  out  more  strongly  than  they  would 
have  done  under  their  previous  creed.  The  substituted  creed 
can  become  adequately  operative  only  when  it  becomes,  like 
the  present  one,  an  element  in  early  education,  and  has  the 
support  of  a  strong  social  sanction.  Nor  will  men  be  quite 
ready  for  it  until,  through  the  continuance  of  a  discipline 
which  has  already  partially  moulded  them  to  the  conditions 
of  social  existence,  they  are  completely  moulded  to  those 
conditions. 

"We  must  therefore  recognize  the  resistance  to  a  change  of 


THE   RECONCILIATIOir.  119 

theological  opinion,  as  in  great  measure  salutary.  It  is  not 
simply  tliat  strong  and  deep-rooted  feelings  are  necessarily 
excited  to  antagonism — it  is  not  simply  tliat  the  highest  moral 
sentiments  join  in  the  condemnation  of  a  change  which  seems 
to  undermine  their  authority  ;  but  it  is  that  a  real  adaptation 
exists  between  an  established  belief  and  the  natures  of  those 
who  defend  it ;  and  that  the  tenacity  of  the  defence  measures 
the  completeness  of  the  adaptation.  Forms  of  religion,  like  forms 
of  government,  must  be  fit  for  those  who  live  under  them ;  and 
iu  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  that  form  which  is  fittest  is  that 
for  which  there  is  an  instinctive  preference.  As  certainly  as  a 
barbarous  race  needs  a  harsh  terrestrial  rule,  and  habitually 
shows  attachment  to  a  despotism  capable  of  the  necessary 
rigour  ;  so  certainly  does  such  a  race  need  a  belief  in  a  celes- 
tial rule  that  is  similarly  harsh,  and  habitually  shows  attach- 
ment to  such  a  belief.  And  just  in  the  same  way  that  the  sud- 
den substitution  of  free  institutions  for  tyrannical  ones,  is  sure 
to  be  followed  by  a  reaction ;  so,  if  a  creed  full  of  dreadful 
ideal  penalties  is  all  at  once  replaced  by  one  presenting  ideal 
penalties  that  are  comparatively  gentle,  there  will  inevitably 
be  a  return  to  some  modification  of  the  old  belief.  The 

parallelism  holds  yet  further.  During  those  early  stages  in 
which  tfiere  is  an  extreme  incongruity  between  the  relatively 
best  and  the  absolutely  best,  both  political  and  religious  changes, 
when  at  rare  intervals  they  occur,  are  necessarily  violent ;  and 
necessarily  entail  violent  retrogressions.  But  as  the  incongruity 
between  that  which  is  and  that  which  should  be,  diminishes,  the 
changes  become  more  moderate,  and  are  succeeded  by  more  mo- 
derate retrogressions ;  until,  as  these  movements  and  counter- 
movements  decrease  in  amount  and  increase  in  frequency, 
they  merge  into  an  almost  continuous  growth.  That  adhesion 
to  old  institutions  and  beliefs,  which,  in  primitive  societies, 
opposes  an  iron  barrier  to  any  advance,  and  which,  after  the 
barrier  has  been  at  length  burst  through,  brings  back  the  in- 
stitutions and  beliefs  from  that  too-forward  position  to  which 
the  momentum  of  change  had  carried  them,  and  so  helps  to 


120  THE    RECONCILIATION. 

re-adapt  social  conditions  to  the  popular  cliaracter — this  adhe- 
sion to  old  institution  and  beliefs,  eventually  becomes  the  con- 
stant check  by  which  the  constant  advance  is  prevented  from 
being  too  rapid.  This  holds  true  of  religious  creeds  and  forms, 
as  of  civil  ones.  And  so  we  learh  that  theological  conserva- 
tism, like  political  conservatism,  has  an  all-important  function. 

§  33.  That  spirit  of  toleration  which  is  so  marked  a  charac- 
teristic of  modern  times,  and  is  daily  growing  more  conspicu-  ' 
ous,  has  thus  a  far  deeper  meaning  than  is  supposed.  What 
we  commonly  regard  simply  as  a  due  respect  for  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  is  really  a  necessary  condition  to  the  bal- 
ancing of  the  progressive  and  conservative  tendencies — is  a 
means  of  maintaining  the  adaptation  between  men's  beliefs 
and  their  natures.  It  is  therefore  a  spirit  to  be  fostered ;  and 
it  is  a  spirit  which  the  catholic  thinker,  who  perceives  the  func- 
tions of  these  various  conflicting  creeds,  should  above  all  other 
men  display.  Doubtless  whoever  feels  the  greatness 

of  the  error  to  which  his  fellows  cling  and  the  greatness  of  the 
truth  which  they  reject,  will  find  it  hard  to  show  a  due  pa- 
tience. It  is  hard  for  him  to  listen  calmly  to  the  futile  argu- 
ments used  in  support  of  irrational  doctrines,  and  to  the  mis- 
representation of  antagonist  doctrines.  It  is  hard  for  him  to 
bear  the  manifestation  of  that  pride  of  ignorance  which  so  far 
exceeds  the  pride  of  science.  Naturally  enough  such  a  one 
wiU  be  indignant  when  charged  with  irreligion  because  he 
declines  to  accept  the  carpenter- theory  of  creation  as  the  most 
worthy  one.  He  may  think  it  needless  as  it  is  difficult,  to  con- 
ceal his  repugnance  to  a  creed  which  tacitly  ascribes  to  The 
Unknowable  a  love  of  adulation  such  as  would  be  despised  in 
a  human  being.  Convinced  as  he  is  that  aU  punishment,  as 
we  see  it  wrought  out  in  the  order  of  nature,  is  but  a  disguised 
beneficence,  there  wiU  perhaps  escape  from  him  an  angry  con- 
demnation of  the  belief  that  punishment  is  a  divine  vengeance, 
and  that  divine  vengeance  is  eternal.  lie  may  be  tempted  to 
fchow  his  contempt  when  he  is  told  that  actions  instigated  by 


TliE    ilECON'ClLIATION.  121 

ail  unselfish,  sjrmpathy  or  by  a  pure  love  of  rectitude,  are 
intrinsically  sinful;  and  that  conduct  is  truly  good  only 
when  it  is  due  to  a  faith  wliose  openly-professed  motive  is 
other- worldliness.  But  lie  must  restrain  such  feelings.  Though 
he  may  be  unable  to  do  this  during  the  excitement  of  contro- 
versy, or  wben  otherwise  brought  face  to  face  with  current 
superstitions,  he  must  yet  qualify  his  antagonism  in  calmer 
moments ;  so  that  his  mature  judgment  and  resulting  conduct 
may  be  without  bias. 

To  this  end  let  him  ever  bear  in  mind  three  cardinal 
facts — two  of  them  already  dwelt  upon,  and  one  still  to  be 
pointed  out.  The  first  is  that  with  which  we  set 

out ;  namely  the  existence  of  a  fundamental  verity  under 
all  forms  of  religion,  however  degraded.  In  each  of  them 
there  is  a  soul  of  truth.  Through  the  gross  body  of.  dogmas 
traditions  and  rites  which  contain  it,  it  is  always  visible — 
dimly  or  clearly  as  the  case  may  be.  This  it  is  which  gives 
vitality  even  to  the  rudest  creed  ;  this  it  is  which  survives 
every  modification  ;  and  this  it  is  which  we  must  not  forget 
when  condemning  the  forms  under  which  it  is  present- 
ed. The  second  of  these  cardinal  facts,  set  forth  at 
length  in  the  foregoing  section,  is,  that  while  those  concrete 
elements  in  which  each  creed  embodies  this  soul  of  truth, 
are  bad  as  measured  by  an  absolute  standard,  they  are  good 
as  measured  by  a  relative  standard.  Though  from  higher 
perceptions  they  hide  the  abstract  verity  within  them ;  yet 
to  lower  perceptions  they  render  this  verity  more  appreciable 
than  it  would  otherwise  be.  They  serve  to  make  real  and 
influential  over  men,  that  which  would  else  be  unreal  and  unin- 
fluential.  Or  we  may  call  them  the  protective  envelopes, 
without  which  the  contained  truth  would  die.  The 
remaining  cardinal  fact  is,  that  these  various  beliefs  are 
parts  of  the  constituted  order  of  things  ;  and  not  accidental 
but  necessary  parts.  Seeing  liow  one  or  other  of  them  is 
everywhere  present ;  is  of  perennial  growth ;  and  when 
cut  down,  redevelopes  in  a  form  but  slightly  modified ;   we 


122  THE   RECONCILIATION.       ' 

cannot  aroid  the  inference  tliat  they  are  needful  accompani- 
ments of  human  life,  severally  fitted  to  the  societies  in 
which  they  are  indigenous.  From  the  highest  point  of 
view,  we  must  recognize  them  as  elements  in  that  great 
evolution  of  which  the  beginning  and  end  are  beyond  our 
knowledge  or  conception — as  modes  of  manifestation  of  The 
Unknowable  ;  and  as  having  this  for  their  warrant. 

Our  toleration  therefore  should  be  the  widest  possible.  Or 
rather,  we  should  aim  at  something  beyond  toleration,  as  com- 
monly understood.  In  dealing  with  alien  beliefs,  our  endea- 
vour must  be,  not  simply  to  refrain  from  injustice  of  word  or 
deed ;  but  also  to  do  justice  by  an  open  recognition  of  positive 
worth.  "We  must  qualify  our  disagreement  with  as  much  as 
may  be  of  sympathy. 

§  34.  These  admissions  will  perhaps  be  held  to  imply,  that 
the  current  theology  should  be  passively  accepted ;  or,  at  any 
rate,  should  not  be  actively  opposed.  "  "Why,"  it  may  be 
asked,  "  if  all  creeds  have  an  average  fitness  to  their  times  and 
places,  should  we  not  rest  content  with  that  to  which  we  are 
born?  If  the  established  belief  contains  an  essential  truth 
—  if  the  forms  under  which  it  presents  this  truth,  though 
intrinsically  bad,  are  extrinsically  good — if  the  abolition  of 
these  forms  would  be  at  present  detrimental  to  the  great  ma- 
jority— nay,  if  there  are  scarcely  any  to  whom  the  ultimate 
and  most  abstract  belief  can  furnish  an  adequate  rule  of  life ; 
surely  it  is  wrong,  for  the  present  at  least,  to  propagate  this 
ultimate  and  most  abstract  belief." 

The  reply  is,  that  though  existing  religious  ideas  and  in- 
stitutions have  an  average  adaptation  to  the  characters  of  the 
people  who  live  under  them ;  yet,  as  these  characters  are  ever 
changing,  the  adaptation  is  ever  becoming  imperfect ;  and  the 
ideas  and  institutions  need  remodelling  with  a  frequency  pro- 
portionate to  the  rapidity  of  l!he  change.  Ilence,  while  it  is 
requisite  that  free  play  should  be  given  to  conservative  thought 
and  action,  progressive  thought  and  action  must  also  have  free 


TTIE    RECOKCILIATION.  123 

play.     Without  tlie  agency  of  both,  there  cannot  be  those  con- 
tinual re-adaptations  which  orderly  progress  demands. 

AYhoever  hesitates  to  utter  that  which  he  thinks  the  high- 
est truth,  lest  it  should  be  too  much  in  advance  of  the  time, 
may  reassure  himself  by  looking  at  his  acts  from  an  imper- 
sonal point  of  view.  Let  him  duly  realize  the  fact  that  opin- 
ion is  the  agency  through  which  character  adapts  external 
arrangements  to  itself — that  his  opinion  rightly  forms  part  of 
this  agency — ^is  a  unit  of  force,  constituting,  with  other  such 
units,  the  general  power  which  works  out  social  changes  ;  and 
he  wiU  perceive  that  he  may  properly  give  full  utterance  to 
liis  innermost  conviction :  leaving  it  to  produce  what  effect  it 
may.  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  he  has  in  him  these  sympa- 
thies with  some  principles  and  repugnance  to  others.  lie, 
with  all  his  capacities,  and  aspirations,  and  beliefs,  is  not  an 
accident,  but  a  product  of  the  time.  He  must  remember  that 
while  he  is  a  descendant  of  the  past,  he  is  a  parent  of  the  fu- 
ture ;  and  that  his  thoughts  are  as  children  bom  to  him, 
which  he  may  not  carelessly  let  die.  He,  like  every  other 
man,  may  properly  consider  himself  as  one  of  the  myriad 
agencies  through  whom  works  the  Unknown  Cause ;  and 
when  the  Unknown  Cause  produces  in  him  a  certain  belief, 
he  is  thereby  authorized  to  profess  and  act  out  that  belief. 
For,  to  render  in  their  highest  sense  the  words  of  the  poet — 

Nature  is  made  better  by  no  mean, 


But  nature  makes  that  mean :  over  that  art 
Which  you  say  adds  to  nature,  is  an  art 
That  nature  makes. 

Not  as  adventitious  therefore  will  the  wise  man  regard  the 
faith  which  is  in  him.  The  highest  truth  he  sees  he  will, 
fearlessly  utter ;  knowing  that,  let  what  may  come  of  it,  he  is 
thus  playing  his  right  part  in  the  world — knowing  that  if  he 
can  effect  the  change  he  aims  at — well :  if  not — well  also , 
though  not  80  welL 


PART   IL 
THE   KNOWABLB. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PHILOSOPHY  DEFINED. 

§  35.  AftePu  concluding  tliat  we  cannot  know  the  ulti- 
mate nature  of  tliat  wMch  is  manifested  to  us,  there  arise 
the  questions — ^What  is  it  that  we  know  ?  In  what  sense 
do  we  know  it  ?  And  in  what  consists  our  highest  knowledge 
of  it  ?  Having  repudiated  as  impossible  the  Philosophy 
which  professes  to  formulate  Being  as  distinguished  from 
Appearance,  it  becomes  needful  to  say  what  Philosophy 
truly  is — ^not  simply  to  specify  its  limits,  but  to  specify  its 
character  within  those  limits.  Given  a  certain  sphere  as  the 
sphere  to  which  human  intelligence  is  restricted,  and  there 
remains  to  define  the  peculiar  product  of  human  intelli- 
gence which  may  still  be  called  Philosophy. 

In  doing  this,  we  may  advantageously  avail  ourselves  of 
the  method  followed  at  the  outset,  of  separating  from  con- 
ceptions that  are  partially  or  mainly  erroneous,  the  element 
of  truth  they  contain.  As  in  the  chapter  on  "  Religion  and 
Science,^'  it  was  inferred  that  religious  beliefs,  wrong  as 
they  might  individually  be  in  their  particular  forms,  never- 
theless probably  each  contained  an  essential  verity,  and  that 
this  was  most  likely  common  to  them  all ;  so  in  this  place  it 
is  to  be  inferred  that  past  and  present  beliefs  respecting  the 
nature  of  Philosophy,  are  none  of  them  wholly  false,  and 
that  that  in  which  they  are  true  is  that  in  which  they  agree. 
We  have  here,  then,  to  do  what  was  done  there — '^  to  com- 
pare all  opinions  of  the  same  genus  ;  to  set  aside  as  more  or 


128  PHILOSOPHY  DEFINED. 

less  discrediting  one  another  tliose  various  special  and  con- 
crete elements  in  wHcli  sucli  opinions  disagree ;  to  observe 
what  remains  after  the  discordant  constituents  have  been 
cJiminated ;  and  to  find  for  this  remaining  constituent  that 
[ibstract  expression  which  holds  true  throughout  its  diver- 
gent modifications/' 

§  36.  Earlier  speculations  being  passed  over^  we  see 
that  among  the  Greeks,  before  there  had  arisen  any  netion 
of  Philosophy  in  general,,  apart  from  particular  forms  of 
Philosophy,  the  particular  forms  of  it  from  which  the 
general  notion  was  to  arise,  were  hypotheses  respecting 
some  universal  principle  that  constituted  the  essence  of  all 
concrete  kinds  of  being.  To  the  question — "  What  is  that 
invariable  existence  of  which  these  are  variable  states  ?'' 
there  were  sundry  answers — Water,  Air,  Fire.  A  class 
of  hypotheses  of  this  all-embracing  character  having  been 
propounded,  it  became  possible  for  Pythagoras  to  conceive 
of  Philosophy  in  the  abstract,  as  knowledge  the  most  remote 
from  practical  ends ;  and  to  define  it  as  "  knowledge  of  im- 
material and  eternal  things  :"  ^^  the  cause  of  the  material 
existence  of  things,^'  being,  in  his  view,  Number.  There- 
after, we  find  continued  a  pursuit  of  Philosophy  as  some 
ultimate  interpretation  of  the  Universe,  assumed  to  be  pos- 
sible, whether  actually  reached  in  any  case  or  not.  And  in 
the  course  of  this  pursuit,  various  such  ultimate  interpreta- 
tions were  given  as  that  '^  One  is  the  beginning  of  all 
things  /'  that ''  the  One  is  God ,"  that  ''  the  One  is  Einite ;" 
that  ^^  the  One  is  Infinite  -/'  that  *"'  Intelligence-is  the  govern- 
ing principle  of  things  ;  "  and  so  on.  From  all  which  it  is 
plain  that  the  knowledge  supposed  to  constitute  Philosophy, 
differed  from  other  knowledge  in  its  transcendent,  exhaustive 
character.  In  the  subsequent  course  of  speculation, 

after  the  Sceptics  had  shaken  men's  faith  in  their  powers  of 
reaching  such  transcendent  knowledge,  there  grew  up  a 
much-restricted  conception  of  Philosophy.     Under  Socrates, 


PHILOSOPHY  DEFINED.  129 

aad  still  more  under  the  Stoics,  PhilosopLy  became  little 
else  than  tlie  doctrine  of  riglit  living.  Its  subject-matter 
was  practically  cut  down  to  the  proper  ruling  of  conduct, 
public  and  private.  Not  indeed  tliat  tbe  proper  ruling  of 
conduct,  as  conceived  by  sundry  of  tlie  later  Greek  tbinkers 
to  constitute  subject-matter  of  PHlosopby,  answered  to  what 
was  popularly  understood  by  tbe  proper  ruling  of  conduct. 
The  injunctions  of  Zeno  were  not  of  the  same  class  as  those 
which  guided  men  from  early  times  downwards,  in  their 
daily  observances,  sacrifices,  customs,  all  having  more  or 
less  of  religious  sanction ;  but  they  were  principles  of  action 
(^iiunciated  without  reference  to  times,  or  persons,  or  special 
cases.  What,  then,  was  the  constant  element  in 

these  unlike  ideas  of  Philosophy  held  by  the  ancients  ? 
Clearly  the  character  in  which  this  last  idea  agrees  with  tho 
first,  is  that  within  its  sphere  of  inquiry,  Philosophy  seeks  for 
wide  and  deep  truths,  as  distinguished  from  the  multitudi- 
nous detailed  truths  which  the  sm-faces  of  things  and  actions 
present. 

By  comparing  the  conceptions  of  Philosophy  that  have 
been  current  in  modern  times,  wo  get  a  like  result.  Tho 
disciples  of  Schelling,  Fichte,  and  their  kindred,  join  the 
Hegelian  in  ridiculing  the  so-called  Philosophy  which  has 
usurped  the  title  in  England.  Not  without  reason,  they 
laugh  on  reading  of  "  Philosophical  instruments  ;'^  and  would 
deny  that  any  one  of  the  papers  in  the  Philosoj)hical  TranS' 
actions  has  the  least  claim  to  come  under  such  a  title.  Petali- 
ating  on  their  critics,  the  English  may,  and  most  of  them  do, 
reject  as  absurd  the  imagined  Philosophy  of  the  German 
schools.  As  consciousness  cannot  be  transcended,  they  hold 
that  whether  consciousness  does  or  does  not  vouch  for 'tho 
existence  of  something  beyond  itself,  it  at  any  rate  cannot 
comprehend  that  something;  and  that  hence,  in  so  far  as  any 
Philosophy  professes  to  be  an  Ontology,  it  is  false.  These 
two  views  cancel  one  another  over  large  parts  of  their 
areas.    The  English  criticism  on  the  Germans,  cuts  off  froo 


ISO  PHILOSOPHY  DEFINED. 

PMlosophy  all  tliat  is  regarded  as  absolute  knowledge. 
The  German  criticism  on  tlie  English  tacitly  implies  that  if 
Philosophy  is  limited  to  the  relative^  it  is  at  any  rate  not 
concerned  with  those  aspects  of  the  relative  which  are  em- 
bodied in  mathematical  formulae,  in  accounts  of  physical 
researches,  in  chemical  analyses,  or  in  descriptions  of  species 
and  reports  of  physiological    experiments.  Now 

what  has  the  too-wide  German  conception  in  common  with 
the  conception  general  among  English  men  of  science; 
which,  narrow  and  crude  as  it  is,  is  not  so  narrow  and  crude 
as  their  misuse  of  the  word  philosophical  indicates  ?  The  two 
have  this  in  common,  that  neither  Germans  nor  English  apply 
the  word  to  unsystematized  knowledge — to  knowledge  quite 
uncoordinated  with  other  knowledge.  Even  the  most  limited 
specialist  would  not  describe  as  philosophical,  an  essay  which, 
dealing  wholly  with  details,  manifested  no  perception  of  tho 
bearings  of  those  details  on  wider  truths. 

The  vague  idea  thus  raised  of  that  in  which  the  various 
conceptions  of  Philosophy  agree,  may  be  rendered  more  defi- 
nite by  comparing  what  has  been  known  in  England  as 
Natural  Philosophy  with  that  development  of  it  called  Posi- 
tive Philosophy.  Though,  as  M.  Comte  admits,  the  two 
consist  of  knowledge  essentially  the  same  in  kind ;  yet,  by 
having  put  this  kind  of  knowledge  into  a  more  coherent 
form,  he  has  given  it  more  of  that  character  to  which  the 
term  philosophical  is  applied.  Without  expressing  any 
opinion  respecting  the  truth  of  his  co-ordination,  it  must  be 
conceded  that  by  the  fact  of  its  co-ordination,  the  body  of 
knowledge  organized  by  him  has  a  better  claim  to  the  title 
Philosophy,  than  has  the  comparatively-unorganized  body  of 
knowledge  named  Natural  Philosophy. 

K  subdivisions  of  Philosophy,  or  more  special  forms  of  it, 
be  contrasted  with  one  another,  or  with  the  whole,  the  same 
implication  comes  out.  Moral  Philosophy  and  Political 
Philosophy,  agree  with  Philosophy  at  large  in  the  compre- 
hensiveness of  their  reasonings  and  conclusions.     Though 


PHILOSOPHY   DEFINED.  131 

under  tlio  head  of  Moral  Pliilosopliy,  we  treat  of  tuman  ac- 
tions as  right  or  wrongs  we  do  not  include  special  directions 
for  behaviour  in  the  nursery,  at  table,  or  on  the  exchange ; 
and  though  Political  Philosophy  has  for  its  topic  the  conduct 
of  men  in  their  public  relations,  it  does  not  concern  itself 
with  modes  of  voting  or  details  of  administration.  Both  of 
these  sections  of  Philosophy  contemplate  particular  instances, 
only  as  illustrating  truths  of  wide  application. 

§  37.  Thus  every  one  of*  these  conceptions  implies  the 
belief  in  a  possible  way  of  knowing  things  more  completely 
than  they  are  known  through  simple  experiences,  mechani- 
cally accumulated  in  memory  or  heaped  up  in  cyclopaedias. 
Though  in  the  extent  of  the  sphere  which  they  have  sup- 
posed Philosophy  to  fiU,  men  have  differed  and  still  differ 
very  widely;  yet  there  is  a  real  if  unavowed  agreement 
among  them  in  signifying  by  this  title  a  knowledge  which 
transcends  ordinary  knowledge.  That  which  remains  as  tho 
common  element  in  these  conceptions  of  Philosophy,  after 
the  elimination  of  their  discordant  elements,  is — hnowledge 
of  the  highest  degree  of  generality,  "We  see  this  tacitly 
asserted  by  the  simultaneous  inclusion  of  God,  Nature,  and 
Man,  within  its  scope ;  or  still  more  distinctly  by  the  divi- 
sion of  Philosophy  as  a  whole  into  Theological,  Physical, 
Ethical,  &c.  For  that  which  characterizes  the  genus  ot 
which  these  are  species,  must  be  something  more  general 
than  that  which  distinguishes  any  one  species. 

What  must  be  the  specific  shape  here  given  to  this  con- 
ception ?  The  range  of  intelligence  we  find  to  be  limited  to 
the  relative.  Though  persistently  conscious  of  a  Power 
manifested  to  us,  we  have  abandoned  as  futile  the  attempt 
to  learn  anything  respecting  the  nature  of  that  Power ;  and 
so  have  shut  out  Philosophy  from  much  of  the  domain  sup- 
posed to  belong  to  it.  The  domain  left  is  that  occupied  by 
Science.  Science  concerns  itself  with  the  co-existences  and 
sequences  among  phenomena ;  grouping  these  at  first  into 


132  PHILOSOPHY   DEFINED. 

generalizations  of  a  simple  or  low  order,  and  rising  gradually 
to  higlier  and  more  extended  generalizations.  But  if  so, 
wliere  remains  any  subject-matter  for  Pliilosopliy  ? 

The  reply  is — ^Pliilosopliy  may  still  properly  be  the  title 
retained  for  knowledge  of  the  highest  generality.  Science 
means  merely  the  family  of  the  Sciences — stands  for  nothing 
more  than  the  sum  of  knowledge  formed  of  their  contribu- 
tions; and  ignores  the  knowledge  constituted  by  the  fusion 
of  all  these  contributions  into  a  whole.  As  usage  has  de- 
fined it.  Science  consists  of  truths  existing  more  or  less 
separated ;  and  does  not  recognize  these  truths  as  entirely 
integrated.     An  illustration  will  make  the  difference  clear. 

If  we  ascribe  the  flow  of  a  river  to  the  same  force  which 
causes  the  fall  of  a  stone,  we  make  a  statement,  true  as  far 
as  it  goes,  that  belongs  to  a  certain  division  of  Science.  If, 
in  further  explanation  of  a  movement  produced  by  gravita- 
tion in  a  direction  almost  horizontal,  we  cite  the  law  that 
fluids  subject  to  mechanical  forces  exert  re-active  forces 
which  are  equal  in  all  directions,  we  formulate  a  wider 
fact,  containing  the  scientific  interpretation  of  many  other 
phenomena;  as  those  presented  by  the  fountain,  the  hy- 
drauhc  press,  the  steam-engine,  the  air-pump.  And  when 
this  proposition,  extending  only  to  tlie  dynamics  of  fluids, 
is  merged  in  a  proposition  of  general  dynamics,  comprehend- 
ing the  laws  of  movement  of  solids  as  well  as  of  fluids, 
there  is  reached  a  yet  higher  truth;  but  still  a  truth  that  comes 
wholly  within  the  realm  of  Science.  Again,  look- 

ing around  at  Birds  and  Mammals,  suppose  we  say  that  air- 
breathing  animals  are  hot-blooded ;  and  that  then,  remem* 
bering  how  Eeptiles,  which  also  breathe  air,  are  not  much 
warmer  than  their  media,  we  say,  more  truly,  that  animals 
(bulks  being  equal)  have  temperatures  proportionate  to  tho 
quantities  of  air  they  breathe;  and  that  then,  calling  to 
mind  certain  large  fish  which  maintain  a  heat  considerably 
above  that  of  tho  water  they  swim  in,  we  further  correct 
the  generalization  by  saying  that  tho  temperature  varies  as 


PniLOSOPHY  DEFINED.  133 

the  rate  of  oxygenation  of  tlie  blood ;  and  that  then,  modify- 
ing tlie  statement  to  meet  other  criticisms,  we  finally  assert 
the  relation  to  be  between  the  amount  of  heat  and  the 
amount  of  molecular  change — supposing  we  do  all  this,  wo 
state  scientific  truths  that  are  successively  wider  and  more 
complete,  but  truths  which,  to  the  last,  remain  purely  scien- 
tific. Once  more  if,  guided  by  mercantile  ex- 
periences, we  reach  the  conclusion  that  prices  rise  when  the 
demand  exceeds  the  supply;  and  that  commodities  flow 
from  places  where  they  are  abundant  to  places  where  they 
are  scarce ;  and  that  the  industries  of  difierent  localities  aro 
determined  in  their  kinds  mainly  by  the  facilities  which  the 
localities  afibrd  for  them ;  and  if,  studying  these  generaliza- 
tions of  pohtical  economy,  .we  trace  them  all  to  the  truth 
that  each  man  seeks  satisfaction  for  his  desires  in  ways 
costing  the  smallest  efforts — such  social  phenomena  being 
resultants  of  individual  actions  so  guided;  we  are  stiU  deal- 
ing with  the  propositions  of  Science  only. 

And  now  how  is  Philosophy  constituted?  It  is  constituted 
by  carrying  a  stage  further  the  process  indicated.  So  long 
as  these  truths  are  known  only  apart  and  regarded  as  inde- 
pendent, even  the  most  general  of  them  cannot  without 
laxity  of  speech  be  called  philosophical.  But  when,  having 
been  severally  reduced  to  a  simple  mechanical  axiom,  a 
principle  of  molecular  physics,  and  a  law  of  social  action, 
they  are  contemplated  together  as  corollaries  of  some  ulti- 
mate truth,  then  we  rise  to  the  kind  of  knowledge  that 
constitutes  Philosophy  proper. 

TJie  truths  of  Philosophy  thus  bear  the  same  relation  to 
the  highest  scientific  truths,  that  each  of  these  bears 
to  lower  scientific  truths.  As  each  widest  generalization 
of  Science  comprehends  and  consolidates  the  narrower  gcnc- 
rahzations  of  its  own  division;  so  the  generalizations  of 
Philosophy  comprehend  and  consolidate  ths  widest  gonc- 
rahzations  of  Science.  It  is  therefore  a  knowledge  the  ex- 
treme opposite  in  kind  to  that  which  experience  first  accu- 


13  i  PHILOSOPHY  DEFINED. 

mulates.  It  is  tlie  final  product  of  tliat  process  wMcL 
begins  with  a  mere  colligation  of  crude  observations^  goes 
on  establishing  propositions  that  are  broader  and  more 
separated  from  particular  cases,  and  ends  in  universal  pro- 
positions. Or  to  bring  the  definition  to  its  simplest  and 
clearest  form  : — Knowledge  of  the  lowest  kind  is  un-unified 
knowledge ;  Science  is  partially -unified  knowledge ;  Philo- 
sophy is  completely -unified  knowledge. 

§  38.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  meaning  we  must  here  give  to 
the  word  Philosophy,  if  we  employ  it  at  all.  In  so  defining 
it,  we  accept  that  which  is  common  to  the  various  concep- 
tions of  it  current  among  both  ancients  and  moderns — ^re- 
jecting those  elements  in  which  these  conceptions  disagree, 
or  exceed  the  possible  range  of  intelligence.  In  short,  we 
are  simply  giving  precision  to  that  application  of  the  word 
which  is  gradually  establishing  itself. 

Two  forms  of  Philosophy,  as  thus  understood,  may  bo 
distinguished  and  dealt  with  separately.  On  the  one  hand, 
the  things  contemplated  may  be  the  universal  truths  :  all 
particular  truths  referred  to  being  used  simply  for  proof  or 
elucidation  of  these  universal  truths.  On  the  other  hand, 
setting  out  with  the  universal  truths  as  granted,  the  things 
contemplated  may  be  the  particular  truths  as  interpreted  by 
them.  In  both  cases  we  deal  with  the  universal  truths; 
but  in  the  one  case  they  are  passive  and  in  the  other  case 
active — in  the  one  case  they  form  the  products  of  exploration 
and  in  the  other  case  the  instruments  of  exploration.  These 
divisions  we  may  appropriately  call  General  Philosophy  .and 
Special  Philosophy  respectively. 

The  remainder  of  this  volume  will  be  devoted  to  General 
Philosophy.  Special  Philosophy,  divided  into  parts  deter- 
mined by  the  natures  of  the  phenomena  treated;  will  be  the 
subject-matter  of  subsequent  volumes. 


CHAPTEB   II. 

THE  DATA  OF  PHILOSOPHY, 

§  39.  Every  thouglit  involves  a  whole  system  of  tliouglits; 
and  ceases  to  exist  if  severed  from  its  various  correlatives. 
As  we  cannot  isolate  a  single  organ  of  a  living  body^  and 
deal  with  it  as  thougli  it.liad  a  life  independent  of  tlie  rest; 
so^  from  the  organized  structure  of  our  cognitions^  we  can- 
not cut  out  one,,  and  proceed  as  though  it  had  survived  the 
separation.  The  development  of  formless  protoplasm  into 
an  embryo^  is  a  speciahzation  of  parts,  the  distinctness  of 
which  increases  only  as  fast  as  their  combination  increases 
•—each  becomes  a  distinguishable  organ  only  on  condition 
that  it  is  bound  up  with  others,  which  have  simul- 
taneously become  distinguishable  organs;  and,  similarly, 
from  the  unformed  material  of  consciousness,  a  developed 
intelligence  can  arise  only  by  a  process  which,  in  making 
thoughts  defined  also  makes  them  mutually  dependent — 
establishes  among  them  certain  vital  connections  the  de- 
struction of  which  causes  instant  death  of  the  thoughts. 
Overlooking  this  all-important  truth,  however,  speculators 
have  habitually  set  out  with  some  professedly-simple  drftum 
or  data ;  have  supposed  themselves  to  assume  nothing 
beyond  this  datum  or  these  data ;  and  have  thereupon  pro- 
ceeded to  prove  or  disprove  propositions  which  were,  by  im- 
plication, already  unconsciously  asserted  along  with  that 
which  was  consciously  asserted. 

This  reasoning  in  a  circle  has  resulted  from  the  misuse  of 


13G  •  THE   DATA  OF   PHILOSOPHY. 

words  :  not  that  misuse  commonly  enlarged  upon — -not  tho 
misapplication  or  change  of  meaning  whence  so  much  error 
arises ;  but  a  more  radical  and  less  obvious  misuse.  Only 
that  thought  which  is  directly  indicated  by  each  word  has 
been  contemplated ;  while  numerous  thoughts  indirectly 
indicated  have  been  left  out  of  consideration.  Because  a 
spoken  or  written  word  can  be  detached  from  all  others,  it 
has  been  inadvertently  assumed  that  the  thing  signified  by 
a  word  can  be  detached  from  the  things  signified  by  all 
other  words.  Though  more-deeply  hidden,  the  mistake  is 
of  the  same  order  as  that  made  by  the  Greeks,  who  were 
continually  led  astray  by  the  belief,  in  some  community  of 
nature  between  the  symbol  and  that  which  it  symbolized. 
For  though  here  community  of  nature  is  not  assumed  to  the 
same  extent  as  of  old,  it  is  assumed  to  this  extent,  that 
because  the  symbol  is  separable  from  all  other  symbols,  and 
can  be  contemplated  as  having  an  independent  existence, 
so  the  thought  symbolized  may  be  thus  separated  and  thus 
contemplated.  How  profoundly  this  error  vitiates 

the  conclusions  of  one  who  makes  it,  we  shall  quickly  see  on 
taking  a  case.  The  sceptical  metaphysician,  wishing  his 
reasonings  to  be  as  rigorous  as  possible,  says  to  himself — 
"  I  will  take  for  granted  only  this  one  thing/^  What  now 
are  the  tacit  assumptions  inseparable  from  his  avowed  as- 
sumption ?  The  resolve  itself  indirectly  asserts  that  there  is 
some  other  thing,  or  are  some  other  things,  which  he  might 
assume ;  for  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  unity  without  think- 
ing of  a  correlative  duality  or  multiplicity.  In  the  very  act, 
therefore,  of  restricting  himself,  he  takes  in  much  that  is 
professedly  left  out.  Again,  before  px'oceeding  he  must  give 
a  definition  of  that  which  he  assumes.  Is  nothing  unex- 
pressed involved  in  the  thought  of  a  thing  as  defined? 
There  is  the  thought  of  something  excluded  by  the  definition 
— there  is,  as  before,  the  thought  of  other  existence.  But 
there  is  much  more.  Defining  a  thing,  or  setting  a  limit  to 
it,  •  implies  the   thought  of  a  limit ;  and  limit  cannot   be 


THE  DATA  or  PHlLOSOrnY.  137 

^.houglit  of  apart  from  some  notion  of  quantity — extensive, 
protensive,  or  intensive.  Furtlier,  definition  is  impossible 
unless  there  enters  into  it  the  thought  of  difference ;  and 
difibrence,  besides  being  unthinkable  without  having  two 
things  that  differ,  implies  the  existence  of  other  differences 
than  the  one  recognized ;  since  otherwise  there  can  be  no 
general  conception  of  difference.  Nor  is  this  all.  As  before 
pointed  out  (§  24)  all  thought  involves  the  consciousness  of 
likeness  :  the  one  thing  avowedly  postulated  cannot  be 
known  absolutely  as  one  thing,  but  can  be  known  only  as  of 
such  or  such  kind — only  as  classed  with  other  things  in 
virtue  of  some  common  attribute.  Thus  along  with  the 
single  avowed  datum,  we  have  surreptitiously  brought  in  a 
number  of  unavowed  data — existence  other  than  that  alleged, 
quantity,  niimher,  limit,  difference,  likeness,  class,  attribute. 
Saying  nothing  of  the  many  more  which  an  exhaustive 
analysis  would  disclose,  we  have  in  these  unacknowledged 
postulates,  the  outlines  of  a  general  theory ;  and  that  theory 
can  be  neither  proved  nor  disproved  by  the  metaphysician's 
argument.  Insist  that  his  symbol  shall  be  interpreted  at 
every  step  into  its  full  meaning,  with  all  the  complementary 
thoughts  implied  by  that  meaning,  and  you  find  already 
taken  for  granted  in  the  premises  that  which  in  the  conclu- 
sion is  asserted  or  denied. 

In  what  way,  then,  must  Philosophy  set  out  ?  The 
developed  intelligence  is  framed  upon  certain  organized 
and  consolidated  conceptions  of  which  it  cannot  divest 
itself;  and  which  it  can  no  more  stir  without  using  than 
the  body  can  stir  without  help  of  its  limbs.  In  what  way, 
then,  is  it  possible  for  intelhgence,  striving  after  Philosophy, 
to  give  any  account  of  these  conceptions,  and  to  show  either 
their  validity  or  their  invalidity?  There  is  but  one  way. 
Those  of  them  which  are  vital,  or  cannot  be  severed  from 
the  rest  without  mental  dissolution,  must  be  assumed  as 
true  provisionally.  The  fundamental  intuitions  that  are 
essential  to  the  process  of  thinking,  must  be  temporarily 


138  THE   DATA  OF  PniLOSOPHY. 

accepted  as  unquestionable :  leaving  the  assumption  of  their 
unquestionableness  to  be  justified  by  the  results. 

§  40.  How  is  it  to  be  justified  by  the  results  ?  As  any 
other  assumption  is  justified — ^by  ascertaining  that  all  the 
conclusions  deducible  from  it,  correspond  with  the  facts  as 
directly  observed — ^by  showing  the  agreement  between  the 
experiences  it  leads  us  to  anticipate,  and  the  actual  ex- 
periences. There  is  no  mode  of  establishing  the  vaHdity  of 
any  belief,  except  that  of  showing  its  entire  congruity  with 
all  other  beliefs.  If  we  suppose  that  a  mass  which  has  a 
certain  colour  and  lustre  is  the  substance  called  gold,  how 
do  we  proceed  to  prove  the  hypothesis  that  it  is  gold  ?  Wo 
represent  to  ourselves  certain  other  impressions  which  gold 
produces  on  us,  and  then  observe  whether,  under  the  appro- 
priate conditions,  this  particular  mass  produces  on  us  such 
impressions.  We  remember,  as  we  say,  that  gold  has  a  high 
specific  gravity;  and  if,  on  poising  this  substance  on  the 
finger,  we  find  that  its  weight  is  great  considering  its  bulk, 
we  take  the  correspondence  between  the  represented  im- 
pression and  the  presented  impression  as  further  evidence 
that  the  substance  is  gold.  In  response  to  a  demand  for 
more  proof,  we  compare  certain  other  ideal  and  real  efiects. 
Knowing  that  gold,  unlike  most  metals,  is  insoluble  in 
nitric  acid,  we  imagine  to  ourselves  a  drop  of  nitric  acid 
placed  on  the  surface  of  this  yellow,  glittering,  heavy  sub- 
stance, without  causing  corrosion ;  and  when,  after  so  plac- 
ing a  drop  of  nitric  acid,  no  efiervescence  or  other  change 
follows,  we  hold  this  agreement  between  the  anticipation 
and  the  experience  to  be  an  additional  reason  for  thinking 
that  the  substance  is  gold.  And  if,  similarly,  the  great 
malleability  possessed  by  gold  we  find  to  be  paralleled  by 
the  great  malleability  of  this  substance;  if,  like  gold,  it 
fuses  at  about  2,000  dcg.;  crystallizes  in  octahedrons;  is  dis- 
solved by  selenic  acid ;  and,  under  all  conditions,  does  what 
gold  does  under  such  conditions ;  the  conviction  that  it  ia 


THE    DATA   OP   PHILOSOPHY.  139 

gold  readies  wliat  we  regard  as  tlie  higliest  certainty — ^we 
know  it  to  be  gold  in  tlie  fullest  sense  of  knowing.  For, 
as  we  liere  see,,  our  wliole  knowledge  of  gold  consists  in 
notHng  more  tlian  tlie  consciousness  of  a  definite  set  of  im- 
pressionSj  standing  in  definite  relations,  disclosed  under 
definite  conditions;  and  if,  in  a  present  experience,  tke 
impressions,  relations,  and  conditions,  perfectly  correspond 
with  tliose  in  past  experiences,  tlie  cognition  kas  all  the 
validity  of  wkick  it  is  capable.  So  tkat,  generalizing  tlio 
statement,  kypotkeses,  down  even  to  tkose  simple  ones 
wliick  we  make  from  moment  to  moment  in  our  acts  of  re- 
cognition, are  verified  wken  entire  congruity  is  found  to 
exist  between  tke  states  of  consciousness  constituting  tkem, 
and  certain  otker  states  of  consciousness  given  in  percep- 
tion, or  reflection,  or  botk ;  and  no  otker  knowledge  is  pos- 
sible for  us  tkan  tkat  wkick  consists  of  tke  consciousness  of 
suck  congruities  and  tkeir  correlative  incongruities. 

Hence  Pkilosopky,  compelled  to  make  tkose  fundamental 
assumptions  witkout  wkick  tkougkt  is  impossible,  kas  to 
justify  tkem  by  skewing  tkeir  congruity  witk  all  otker  dicta 
of  consciousness.  Debarred  as  we  are  from  everytking 
beyond  tke  relative,  trutk,  raised  to  its  kigkest  form,  can  be 
for  us  notking  more  tkan  perfect  agreement,  tkrougkout  tke 
wkole  range  of  our  experience,  between  tkose  representa- 
tions of  tkings  wkick  we  distinguisk  as  ideal  and  tkose  presen- 
tations of  tkings  wliick  we  distinguisk  as  real.  If,  by  discover- 
ing a  proposition  to  be  untrue,  we  mean  notking  more  tkau 
discovering  a  difierence  between  a  tking  expected  and  a 
tking  perceived;  tken  a  body  of  conclusions  in  wkick  no 
suck  difierence  anywkere  occurs,  must  be  wkat  we  mean  by 
an  entirely  true  body  of  conclusions. 

And  kere,  indeed,  it  becomes  also  obvious  tkat,  setting 
out  witk  tkese  fundamental  intuitions  provisionally  assumed 
to  be  true — ^tkat  is,  provisionally  assumed  to  be  congruous 
witk  all  otker  dicta  of  consciousness — tke  process  of  proving 
or  disproving  tke  congruity  becomes  tke  business  of  Pkilo- 


MO  THE   DATA  OP  PHILOSOrHY. 

sophy;  and  the  complete  establisliment  of  tlio  congiiiity 
becomes  tlie  same  thing  as  the  complete  unification  of  know- 
ledge in  which  Philosophy  reaches  its  goal. 

§  41 .  What  is  this  datum^  or  rather,  what  are  these  data, 
which  Philosophy  cannot  do  without?  Clearly  one  pri- 
mordial datum  is  involved  in  the  foregoing  statement. 
Already  by  implication  we  have  assumed^  and  must  for  ever 
continue  to  assume,  that  congruities  and  incongruities 
exist,  and  are  cognizable  by  us.  We  cannot  avoid  accept- 
ing as  true  the  verdict  of  consciousness  that  some  mani- 
festations are  like  one  another  and  some  are  unlike  one 
another.  Unless  consciousness  be  a  competent  judge  of  the 
likeness  and  unlikeness  of  its  states,  there  can  never  bo 
established  that  congruity  throughout  the  whole  of  our 
cognitions  which  constitutes  Philosophy;  nor  can  there  ever 
be  established  that  incongruity  by  which  only  any  hypo- 
thesis, philosophical  or  other,  can  be  shown  erroneous. 

The  impossibility  of  moving  towards  either  conviction  or 
scepticism  without  postulating  thus  much,  we  shall  see  even 
more  vividly  on  observing  how  every  step  in  reasoning  pos- 
tulates thus  much,  over  and  over  again.  To  say  that  all 
things  of  a  certain  class  are  characterized  by  a  certain  attri- 
bute, is  to  say  that  all  things  known  as  lilce  in  those  various 
attributes  connoted  by  their  common  name,  are  also  lihe  in 
having  the  particular  attribute  specified.  To  say  that  somo 
object  of  immediate  attention  belongs  to  this  class,  is  to  say 
that  it  is  nice  all  the  others  in  the  various  attributes  con- 
noted by  their  common  name.  To  say  that  this  object  pos- 
sesses the  particular  attribute  specified,  is  to  say  that  it  is 
Uhe  the  others  in  this  respect  also.  While,  contrariwise,  the 
assertion  that  the  attribute  thus  inferred  to  be  possessed  by 
it,  is  not  possessed,  implies  the  assertion  that  in  place  of  ono 
of  the  alleged  lilccnesscs  there  exists  an  unWceness.  Neither 
affirmation  nor  denial,  therefore,  of  any  deliverance  of  reason, 
or  any  clement  of  sucli  deliverance,  is  possible  without  ac- 


THE    DATA   OP    PHILOSOPHY.  141 

cepfcing  the  dictum  of  consciousness  that  certain  of  its  states 
are  like  or  unlike.  Wlience^  besides  seeing  tliat  tlie  unified 
knowledge  constituting  a  completed  Pliilosoplij^  is  a  know- 
ledge composed  of  parts  that  are  uniyersally  congruous  ;  and 
besides  seeing  that  it  is  the  business  of  Philosophy  to  esta- 
blish their  universal  congruity;  we  also  see  that  every  act  of 
the  process  by  which  this  universal  congruity  is  to  be  esta- 
blished, down  even  to  the  components  of  every  inference 
and  every  observation,  consists  in  the  establishment  of  con- 
gruity. 

Consequently,  the  assumption  that  a  congruity  or  an  in- 
congruity exists  when  consciousness  testifies  to  it,  is  an  in- 
evitable assumption.  It  is  useless  to  say,  as  Sir  "W.  Hamil- 
ton does,  that  '^  consciousness  is  to  be  presumed  trustworthy 
until  proved  mendacious.-"  It  cannot  be  proved  mendacious 
in  this,  its  primordial  act ;  since,  as  we  see,  proof  involves  a 
repeated  acceptance  of  this  primordial  act.  iN'ay  more,  the 
very  thing  supposed  to  be  proved  cannot  be  expressed  with- 
out recognizing  this  primordial  act  as  valid ;  since  unless  we 
accept  the  verdict  of  consciousness  that  they  difier,  menda- 
city and  trustworthiness  become  identical.  Process  and 
product  of  reasoning  both  disappear  in  the  absence  of  this 
assumption. 

It  may,  indeed,  be  often  shown  that  what,  after  careless 
comparison,  were  supposed  to  be  like  states  of  consciousness, 
are  really  unlike ;  or  that  what  were  carelessly  supposed  to 
be  unhke,  are  really  hke.  But  how  is  this  shown  ?  Simply 
by  a  more  careful  comparison,  mediately  or  immediately 
made.  And  what  does  acceptance  of  the  revised  conclusion 
imply  ?  Simply  that  a  deliberate  verdict  of  consciousness  is 
preferable  to  a  rash  one ;  or,  to  speak  more  definitely — that 
a  consciousness  of  likeness  or  difference  which  survives 
critical  examination  must  be  accepted  in  place  of  ono  that 
does  not  survive — the  very  survival  being  itself  the  accept- 
ance. 

And  here  we  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  matter.     The 


142 


THE   DATA   OP   riTILOSOniY. 


permanence  of  a  consciousness  of  likeness  or  difference, 
is  our  ultimate  warrant  for  asserting  tlie  existence  of  like- 
ness or  difference  ;  and^  in  fact^  we  mean  by  tke  existence  of 
likeness  or  difference,  nothing  more  tlian  tlie  permanent  con- 
sciousness of  it.  To  say  that  a  given  congruity  or  incon- 
gruity exists,  is  simply  our  way  of  saying  tliat  we  invariably 
have  a  consciousness  of  it  along  with  a  consciousness  of  the 
compared  things.  We  know  nothing  more  of  existence  than 
a  continued  manifestation. 

§  42.  But  Philosophy  requires  for  its  datum  some  substan- 
tive proposition.  To  recognize  as  unquestionable  a  certain 
fundamental  process  of  thought,  is  not  enough :  we  must 
recognize  as  unquestionable  some- fundamental  jproduct  of 
thought,  reached  by  this  process.  If  Philosophy  is  com- 
pletely-unified knowledge — ^if  the  unification  of  knowledge 
is  to  be  effected  only  by  showing  that  some  ultimate  propo- 
sition includes  and  consolidates  all  the  results  of  experience  ; 
then,  clearly,  this  ultimate  proposition  which  has  to  be 
proved  congruous  with  all  others,  must  express  a  piece  of 
knowledge,  and  not  the  validity  of  an  act  of  knowing. 
Having  assumed  the  trustworthiness  of  consciousness,  wo 
have  also  to  assume  as  trustworthy  some  deHverance  of  con- 
sciousness. 

What  must  this  be  ?  Must  it  not  be  one  affirming  the 
widest  and  most  profound  distinction  which  things  present  ? 
Must  it  not  be  a  statement  of  congruities  and  incongruities 
more  general  than  any  other  ?  An  ultimate  principle  that 
is  to  unify  all  experience,  must  be  co-extensive  with  all  ex- 
perience— cannot  be  concerned  with  experience  of  one  order 
or  several  orders,  but  must  be  concerned  with  universal  ex- 
perience. That  which  Philosophy  takes  as  its  datum,  must 
be  an  assertion  of  some  likeness  and  difference  to  which 
all  other  likenesses  and  differences  are  secondary.  If  know- 
ing is  classifying,  or  grouping  the  like  and  separating  the 
unlike ;   and  if  the  unification  of  knowledge  proceeds  by 


THE   DATA  CP   PHILOSOPHY.  143 

Biranging  the  smaller  classes  of  like  experiences  within  tlio 
larger,  and  these  witMn  the  still  larger ;  then,  the  proposi- 
tion by  which  knowledge .  is  unified,  must  be  one  specifying 
the  antithesis  between  two  ultimate  classes  of  experiences,  in 
which  all  others  merge. 

Let  us  now  consider  what  these  classes  are.  In  drawing 
the  distinction  between  them,  we  cannot  avoid  using  words 
that  have  indirect  implications  wider  than  their  direct  mean- 
ings— ^we  cannot  avoid  arousing  thoughts  that  imply  the 
very  distinction  which  it  is  the  object  of  the  analysis  to 
establish.  Keeping  this  fact  in  mind,  we  can  do  no  more 
than  ignore  the  connotations  of  the  words,  and  attend  only 
to  the  things  they  avowedly  denote. 

§  43.  Setting  out  from  the  conclusion  lately  reached, 
that  all  things  known  to  us  are  manifestations  of  the  Un- 
knowable ;  and  suppressing,  so  far  as  we  may,  every  hypo- 
thesis respecting  the  something  which  underlies  one  or  other 
order  of  these  manifestations ;  we  find  that  the  manifesta- 
tions, considered  simply  as  such,  are  divisible  into  two  great 
classes,  called  by  some  impressions  and  ideas.  The  implica- 
tions of  these  words  are  apt  to  vitiate  the  reasonings  of  those 
who  use  the  words ;  and  though  it  may  be  possible  to  use 
them  only  with  reference  to  the  difierential  characteristics 
they  are  meant  to  indicate,  it  is  best  to  avoid  the  risk  of 
making  unacknowledged  assumptions.  The  term  sensation, 
too,  commonly  used  as  the  equivalent  of  impression,  implies 
certain  psychological  theories — ^tacitly,  if  not  openly,  postu- 
lates a  sensitive  organism  and  something  acting  upon  it; 
and  can  scarcely  be  employed  without  bringing  these  postu- 
lates into  the  thoughts  and  embodying  them  in  the  in- 
ferences. Similarly,  the  phrase  state  of  consciousness,  as 
signifying  either  an  impression  or  an  idea,  is  objectionable. 
As  we  cannot  think  of  a  state  without  thinking  of  something 
of  which  it  is  a  state,  and  which  is  capable  of  difieront 
states,  there  is  involved    a  foregone   conclusion — an  un^ 


144  THE   DATA  OP   PHILOSOPHY. 

developed  system  of  metapliysics.  Here,  accepting  tlie  in- 
evitable implication  tliat  the  manifestations  imply  some- 
tliing  manifested,  our  aim  must  be  to  avoid  any  further 
implications.  Tbougli  we  cannot  exclude  furtlier  implica- 
tions from  our  tbougMs,  and  cannot  carry  on  our  argument 
without  tacit  recognitions  of  them,  we  can  at  any  rate  refuse 
to  recognize  them  in  the  terms  with  which  we  set  out.  We 
may  do  this  most  effectually  by  classing  the  manifestations 
as  vivid  and  faint  respectively.  Let  us  consider  what  arc 
the  several  distinctions  that  exist  between  these. 

And  first  a  few  words  on  this  most  conspicuous  distinction 
which  these  antithetical  names  imply.  Manifestations  that 
occur  under  the  conditions  called  those  of  perception  (and 
the  conditions  so  called  we  must  here,  as  much  as  possible, 
separate  from  all  hypotheses,  and  regard  simply  as-  them- 
selves a  certain  group  of  manifestations)  are  ordinarily  far 
more  distinct  than  those  which  occur  under  the  conditions 
known  as  those  of  reflection,  or  memory,  or  imagination,  or 
ideation.  These  vivid  manifestations  do,  indeed,  sometimes 
differ  but  little  from  the  faint  ones.  When  nearly  dark  we 
may  be  unable  to  decide  whether  a  certain  manifestation 
belongs  to  the  vivid  order  or  the  faint  order — ^whether,  as 
we  say,  we  really  see  something  or  fancy  we  see  it.  In  liko 
manner,  between  a  very  feeble  sound  and  the  imagination  of 
a  sound,  it  is  occasionally  difficult  to  discriminate.  But 
these  exceptional  cases  are  extremely  rare  in  comparison 
with  the  enormous  mass  of  cases  in  which,  from  instant  to 
instant,  the  vivid  manifestations  distinguish  themselves  un- 
mistakeably  from  th6  faint.  Conversely,  it  also 

now  and  then  happens  (though  under  conditions  which  we 
significantly  distinguish  as  abnormal)  that  manifestations  of 
the  faint  order  become  so  strong  as  to  be  mistaken  for  those 
of  the  vivid  order.  Idea^  sights  and  sounds  are  in  the  in- 
sane so  much  intensified  as  to  bo  classed  with  real  sights 
and  sounds — ideal  and  real  being  here  supposed  to  imply  no 
other  contrast  than  that  which  we  arc  considering.    These 


THE   DATA   OF   PHILOSOPHY.  145 

cases  of  illusion^  as  we  call  them,  bear,  however,  so  small  a 
ratio  to  tlie  great  mass  of  cases,  tliat  we  may  safely  neglect 
them,  and  say  that  the  relative  faintness  of  these  manifesta- 
tions of  the  second  order  is  so  marked,  that  we  are  never  in 
doubt  as  to  their  distinctness  from  those  of  the  first  order. 
Or  if  we  recognize  the  exceptional  occurrence  of  doubt,  the 
recognition  serves  but  to  introduce  the  significant  fact  that 
we  have  other  means  of  determining  to  which  order  a  parti- 
cular manifestation  belongs,  when  the  test  of  comparative 
vividness  fails  us. 

Manifestations  of  the  vivid  order  precede,  in  our  experi- 
ence, those  of  the  faint  order;  or,  in  the  terms  quoted 
'above,  the  idea  is  an  imperfect  and  feeble  repetition  of  the 
original  impression.  To  put  the  facts  in  historical  sequence 
-—there  is  first  a  presented  manifestation  of  the  vivid  order, 
and  then,  afterwards,  there  may  come  a  represented  manifes- 
tation that  is  like  it  except  in  being  much  less  distinct. 
Besides  the  universal  experience  that  after  having  those 
vivid  manifestations  which  we  call  particular  places  and 
persons  and  things,  we  can  have  those  faint  manifestations 
which  we  call  recollections  of  the  places,  persons,  and  things, 
but  cannot  have  these  previously ;  and  besides  the  universal 
experience  that  before  tasting  certain  substances  and  smell- 
ing certain  perfumes  we  are  without  the  faint  manifestations 
known  as  ideas  of  their  tastes  and  smells ;  we  have  also  the 
fact  that  where  certain  orders  of  the  vivid  manifestations 
are  shut  out  (as  the  visible  from  the  blind  and  the  audible 
from  the  deaf)  the  corresponding  faint  manifestations 
never   come  into   existence.  It  is   true  that  in 

some  cases  the  faint  manifestations  precede  the  vivid.* 
What  we  call  a  conception  of  a  machine  may  presently  be 
followed  by  a  vivid  manifestation  matching  it — a  so-called 
actual  machine.  But  in  the  first  place  this  occurrence  of  the 
vivid  manifestation  after  the  faint,  haj  no  analogy  with  the 
occurrence  of  the  faint  after  the  vivld^ts  sequence  is  not 
spontaneous  like  that  of  the  idea  after  the  impression.     And 


146  THE   DATA   OF   PHILOSOPHY. 

in  the  second  place,  tliongh  a  faint  manifestation  of  tHs 
kind  may  occur  before  the  vivid  one  answering  to  it,  yet  its 
component  parts  may  not.  Without  the  foregoing  vivid 
manifestations  of  wheels  and  bars  and  cranks,  the  inventor 
could  have  no  faint  manifestation  of  his  new  machine.  Thus, 
the  occurrence  of  the  faint  manifestations  is  made  possible 
by  the  previous  occurrence  of  the  vivid.  They  are  distin- 
guished from  one  another  as  independent  and  dependent. 

These  two  orders  of  manifestations  form  concurrent 
scries ;  or  rather  let  us  call  them,  not  series,  which  implies 
linear  arrangements,  but  heterogeneous  streams  or  pro- 
cessions. These  run  side  by  side;  each  now  broadening 
and  now  narrowing,  each  now  threatening  to  obliterate  its 
neighbour,  and  now  in  turn  threatened  with  obhteration, 
but  neither  ever  quite  excluding  the  other  from  their 
common  channel.  Let  us  watch  the  mutual  actions  of  the 
two  currents.  During  what  we  call  our  states  of 

activity,  the  vivid  manifestations  predominate.  We  simul- 
taneously receive  many  and  varied  presentations — a,  crowd 
of  visual  impressions,  sounds  more  or  less  numerous,  resist- 
ances, tastes,  odom^s,  &c. ;  some  groups  of  them  changing, 
and  others  temporarily  fixed,  but  altering  as  we  move ;  and 
when  we  compare  in  its  breadth  and  massiveness  this 
heterogeneous  combination  of  vivid  manifestations  with  the 
concurrent  combination  of  faint  manifestations,  these  last 
sink  into  relative  insignificance.  They  never  wholly  dis- 
appear however.  Always  along  with  the  vivid  manifesta- 
tions, even  in  their  greatest  obtrusivcness,  analysis  discloses 
a  thread  of  thoughts  and  interpretations  constituted  of  the 
faint  manifestations.  Or  if  it  be  contended  that  the  occur- 
rence of  a  deafening  explosion  or  an  intense  pain  may  for  a 
moment  exclude  every  idea,  it  must  yet  be  admitted  that 
such  breach  of  continuity  can  never  be  immediately  known 
as  occurring;  since  the  act  of  knowing  is  impossible  in 
the  absence  of  ideas.  On  the  other  hand,  after 

certain  vivid   manifestations   which  we  call    tho    acts  of 


THE   DATA   OP   PHILOSOPHY.  147 

closing  tlie  eyes  and  adjusting  ourselves  so  as  to  enfeeble 
tlie  vivid  manifestations  of  pressure^  sound,  &c.,  tlie  mani- 
festations of  tlie  faint  order  become  relatively  predominant. 
Tlie  ever- varying  heterogeneous  current  of  tliem,  no  longer 
obscured  by  tbe  vivid  current,  grows  more  distinct,  and 
seems  almost  to  exclude  the  vivid  current.  But  wbile  wbat 
we  call  consciousness  continues,  tbe  current  of  vivid  mani- 
festations, however  small  the  dimensions  to  wbicb  it  is 
reduced,  still  continues  :  pressure  and  toucb  do  not  wholly 
disappear.  It  is  only  on  lapsing  into  the  unconsciousness 
termed  sleep,  that  manifestations  of  the  vivid  order  cease 
to  be  distinguishable  as  such,  and  those  of  the  faint  order 
come  to  be  mistaken  for  them.  And  even  of  this  we  remain 
unaware  tiU  the  recurrence  of  manifestations  of  the  vivid 
order  on  awaking :  we  can  never  infer  that  manifestations 
of  the  vivid  order  have  been  absent,  until  they  are  again 
present ;  and  can  therefore  never  directly  know  them  to  bo 
absent.  Thus,  of  the  two  concurrent  compound 

series  of  manifestations,  eaclj  preserves  its  continuity. 
As  they  flow  side  by  side,  each  trenches  on  the  other, 
but  there  never  comes  a  moment  at  which  it  can  be  said 
that  the  one  has,  then  and  there,  broken  through  the  other. 
Besides  this  longitudinal  cohesion  there  is  a  lateral  cohe- 
sion, both  of  the  vivid  to  the  vivid  and  of  the  faint  to  the 
faint.  The  components  of  the  vivid  series  are  bound  to- 
gether by  ties  of  co-existence  as  well  as  by  ties  of  succes- 
sion ;  and  the  components  of  the  faint  series  are  similarly 
bound  together.  Between  the  degrees  of  union  in  the  two 
cases  there  are,  however,  marked  and  very  significant 
differences.     Let  us  observe  them.  Over  an  area 

occupying  part  of  the  so-called  field  of  view,  lights  and 
shades  and  colours  and  outlines  constitute  a  group  to 
which,  as  the  signs  of  an  object,  we  give  a  certain  name ; 
and  while  they  continue  present,  these  united  vivid  manifes- 
tations remain  inseparable.  So,  too,  is  it  with  co-existing 
groups  of  manifestations :  each  persists  as  a  special  com* 


148 


THE   DATA   OP   PHILOSOPHY. 


bination ;  and  most  of  tliem  preserve  unclianging  relations 
witli  those  around.  Sucli  of  them  as  do  not — sucli  of  tliem 
as  are  capable  of  what  we  call  independent  moveinents, 
nevertheless  show  us  a  constant  connexion  between  certain 
of  the  manifestations  they  include,  along  with  a  variable 
connexion  of  others.  And  though  after  certain  vivid  mani- 
festations known  as  a  change  in  the  conditions  of  percep- 
tion, there  is  a  change  in  the  proportions  among  the  vivid 
manifestations  constituting  any  group,  their  cohesion  con- 
tinues— ^we  do  not  succeed  in  detaching  one  or  more  of 
them  from  the  rest.  Turning  to  the  faint  mani- 

festations, we  see  that  while  there  are  lateral  cohesions 
among  them,  these  are  much  less  extensive,  and  in  most 
cases  are  by  no  means  so  rigorous.  After  closing  my  eyes, 
I  can  represent  an  object  now  standing  in  a  certain  place, 
as  standing  in  some  other  place,  or  as  absent.  While  I 
look  at  a  blue  vase,  I  cannot  separate  the  vivid  manifes- 
tation of  blueness  from  the  vivid  manifestation  of  a  parti- 
cular shape;  but,  in  the  absence  of  these  vivid  manifesta- 
tions, I  can  separate  the  faint  manifestation  of  the  shape 
from  the  faint  manifestation  of  blueness,  and  replace  the  last 
by  a  faint  manifestation  of  redness.  It  is  so  throughout : 
the  faint  manifestations  cling  together  to  a  certain  extent, 
but  nevertheless  most  of  them  may  be  re-arranged  with 
facility.  Indeed  none  of  the  individual  faint  manifestations 
cohere  in  the  same  indissoluble  way  as  do  the  individual 
vivid  manifestations.  Though  along  with  a  faint  manifesta- 
tion of  pressure  there  is  always  some  faint  manifestation  of 
extension,  yet  no  particular  faint  manifestation  of  extension 
is  bound  up  with  a  particular  faint  manifestation  of  pres- 
sure. So  that  whereas  in  the  vivid  order  the  indi- 
vidual manifestations  cohere  indissolubly,  usually  in  large 
groups,  in  the  faint  order  the  individual  manifestations  none 
of  them  cohere  indissolubly,  and  are  most  of  them  loosely 
aggregated:  the  only  indissoluble  cohesions  among  them 
being  between  certain  of  their  generic  forms. 


THE   DATA  OP   PHILOSOPHY.  14i) 

WMle  the  components  of  eacli  current  colitre  witli  ono 
another,  they  do  not  cohere  at  all  strongly  with  those  of 
the  other  current.  Or,  more  correctly,  we  may  say  that  the 
vivid  current  habitually  flows  on  quite  undisturbed  by  the 
faint  current;  and  that  the  faint  current,  though  often 
largely  determined  by  the  vivid,  and  always  to  some  extent 
carried  with  it,  may  yet  maintain  a  substantial  independence, 
letting  the  vivid  current  slide  by.  We  will  glance  at  the 
interactions   of   the    two.  The    successive    faint 

manifestations  constituting  thought,  fail  to  modify  in  the 
slightest  degree  the  vivid  manifestations  that  present  them- 
selves. Omitting  a  quite  peculiar  class  of  exceptions,  here- 
after to  be  dealt  with,  the  vivid  manifestations,  fixed  and 
changing,  are  not  directly  affected  by  the  faint.  Those 
which  I  distinguish  as  components  of  a  landscape,  as 
surgings  of  the  sea,  as  whistlings  of  the  wind,  as  move- 
ments of  vehicles  and  people,  are  absolutely  uninfluenced 
by  the  accompanying  faint  manifestations  which  I  distin- 
guish as  my  ideas.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
current  of  faint  manifestations  is  always  somewhat  per- 
turbed by  the  vivid.  Frequently  it  consists  mainly  of  faint 
manifestations  which  cling  to  the  vivid  ones,  and  are  carried 
with  them  as  they  pass — memories  and  suggestions  as  we 
call  them,  which,  joined  with  the  vivid  manifestations  pro- 
ducing them,  form  almost  the  whole  body  of  the  manifesta- 
tions. At  other  times,  when,  as  we  say,  absorbed  in 
thought,  the  disturbance  of  the  faint  current  is  but  super- 
ficial. The  vivid  manifestations  drag  after  them  such  few 
faint  manifestations  only  as  constitute  recognitions  of  them : 
to  each  impression  adhere  certain  ideas  which  make  up 
the  interpretation  of  it  as  such  or  such.  But  there  mean- 
while flows  on  a  main  stream  of  faint  manifestations  whollv 
•jnrelated  to  the  vivid  manifestations — ^what  we  call  a 
reverie,  perhaps,  or  it  may  be  a  process  of  reasoning.  And 
occasionally,  during  the  state  known  as  absence  of  mind, 
this  current  of  faint  manifestations  so  far  predominates  that 
8 


150  THE   DATA  OF  rniLOSOPHr. 

tlio  vivid  current  scarcely  affects  it  at  all.  HencOj 

these  concurrent  series  of  manifestations^  each  coherent  with 
itself  longitudinallj  and  laterally^  have  but  a  partial  cohe- 
rence with  one  another.  The  vivid  series  is  quite  -unmoved 
by  its  passing  neighbour;  and  though  the  faint  series  is 
always  to  some  extent  moved  by  the  adjacent  vivid  series, 
and  is  often  carried  bodily  along  with  the  vivid  series,  it 
may  nevertheless  become  in  great  measure  separate. 

Yet  another  all-important  differential  characteristic  has  to 
be  specified.  The  conditions  under  which  these  respective 
orders  of  manifestations  occur,  are  different;  and  the  con- 
ditions of  occurrence  of  each  order  belong  to  itself.  When- 
ever the  immediate  antecedents  of  vivid  manifestations  aro 
traceable,  they  prove  to  be  other  vivid  manifestations ;  and 
though  we  cannot  say  that  the  antecedents  of  the  faint 
manifestations  always  lie  wholly  among  themselves,  yet  the 
essential  ones  lie  wholly  among  themselves.  These  state- 
ments will  need  a  good  deal  of  explanation.  •  Ob- 
viously, changes  among  any  of  the  vivid  manifestations  wo 
are  contemplating — the  motions  and  sounds  and  alterations 
of  appearance,  in  what  we  call  surrounding  objects — aro 
cither  changes  that  follow  certain  vivid  manifestations,  or 
changes  of  which  the  antecedents  are  unapparent.  Some  of 
the  vivid  manifestations,  however,  occur  only  under  certain 
conditions  that  seem  to  be  of  another  order.  Those  which 
we  know  as  colours  and  visible  forms  presuppose  open  eyes. 
But  what  is  the  opening  of  the  eyes,  translated  into  the 
terms  we  are  here  using  ?  Literally  it  is  an  occurrence  of 
certain  vivid  manifestations.  The  preliminary  idea  of  open- 
ing the  eyes  does,  indeed,  consist  of  faint  manifestations,  but 
the  act  of  opening  them  consists  of  vivid  manifestations. 
And  the  like  is  still  more  conspicuously  the  case  with  those 
movements  of  the  eyes  and  the  head  which  are  followed  by 
new  groups  of  vivid  manifestations.  Similarly  with  the 
antecedents  to  the  vivid  manifestations  which  we  distinguish 
as  those  of  touch  and  pressure.  All  the  changeable  ones  have 


THE    DATA   OF   PHILOSOPHY.  151 

for  their  conditions  of  occurrence  certain  vi\dd  manifesta- 
tions wliicli  we  know  as  sensations  of  muscular  tension.  It 
is  true  tliat  tte  conditions  to  these  conditions  are  manifesta- 
tions of  tlie  faint  order — those  ideas  of  muscular  actions 
whicli  precede  muscular  actions.  And  we  are  here  intro- 
duced to  a  complication  arising  from  the  fact  that  what  is 
called  the  body,  is  present  to  us  as  a  set  of  vivid  manifesta- 
tions connected  with  the  faint  manifestations  in  a  special 
way — a,  way  such  that  in  it  alone  certain  vivid  manifesta- 
tions are  capable  of  being  produced  by  faint  manifestations. 
There  must  be  named,  too,  the  kindred  exception  furnished 
by  the  emotions — an  exception  which,  however,  serves  to 
enforce  the  general  proposition.  For  while  it  is  true  that 
the  emotions  are  to  be  considered  as  a  certain  kind  of  vivid 
manifestations,  and  are  yet  capable  of  being  produced  by 
the  faint  manifestations  we  call  ideas;  it  is  also  true  that 
because  the  conditions  to  their  occurrence  thus  exist  among 
the  faint  manifestations,  we  class  them  as  belonging  to  the 
same  general  aggregate  as  the  faint  manifestations — do  not 
class  them  with  such  other  vivid  manifestations  as  colours, 
sounds,  pressures,  smells,  &c.  But  oniitting  these  peculiar 
vivid  manifestations  which  we  know  as  muscular  tensions 
and  emotions,  and  which  we  habitually  class  apart,  we  may 
say  of  all  the  rest,  that  the  conditions  to  their  exist- 
ence as  vivid  manifestations  are  manifestations  belonging 
to  their  own   class.  In  the  parallel  current  we 

find  a  parallel  truth.  Though  many  manifestations  of  the 
faint  order  are  partly  caused  by  manifestations  of  the  vivid 
order,  which  call  up  memories  as  we  say,  and  suggest  in- 
ferences; yet  these  results  mainly  depend  on  certain  antece- 
dents belonging  to  the  faint  order.  A  cloud  drifts  across 
the  sun,  and  may  or  may  not  produce  an  effect  on  the  cur- 
rent of  ideas :  the  inference  that  it  is  about  to  rain  may 
arise,  or  there  may  be  a  persistence  in  the  previous  train  of 
thought — a  difference  obviously  determined  by  conditions 
among  the  thoughts.     Again,  such  power  as  a  vivid  mani- 


152  THE   DATA   OP   PHILOSOPHY. 

festation  has  of  causing  certain  faint  manifestations  to  arise, 
depends  on  tlie  pre-existence  of  certain  appropriate  faint 
manifestations.  If  I  have  never  heard  a  curlew,  the  cry 
which  an  unseen  one  makes,  fails  to  produce  an  idea  of  the 
bird.  And  we  have  but  to  remember  what  various  trains  of 
reflection  are  aroused  by  the  same  sight,  to  see  how  essen- 
tially the  occurrence  of  each  faint  manifestation  depends  on 
its  relations  to  other  faint  manifestations  that  have  gone 
before  or  that  co-exist. 

Here  we  are  introduced,  lastly,  to  one  of  the  most  striking, 
and  perhaps  the  most  important,  of  the  differences  between 
those  two  orders  of  manifestations — a  difference  continuous 
with  that  just  pointed  out,  but  one  which  may  with  advan- 
tage be  separately  insisted  upon.  The  conditions  of  occur- 
rence are  not  distinguished  solely  by  the  fact  that  each  set, 
when  identifiable,  belongs  to  its  own  order  of  manifestations; 
but  they  are  further  distinguished  in  a  very  significant  way. 
Manifestations  of  the  faint  order  have  traceable  antece- 
dents; can  be  made  to  occur  by  establishing  their  condi- 
tions of  occurrence ;  and  can  be  suppressed  by  establishing 
other  conditions.  But  manifestations  of  the  vivid  order 
continually  occur  without  previous  presentation  of  their 
antecedents  ;  and  in  many  cases  they  persist  or  cease,  under 
cither  known  or  unknown  conditions,  in  such  way  as  to 
show  that  their  conditions  are  wholly  beyond  control. 
The  impression  distinguished  as  a  flash  of  lightning,  breaks 
across  the  current  of  our  thoughts,  absolutely  without 
notice.  The  sounds  from  a  band  that  strikes  up  in  the 
street  or  from  a  crash  of  china  in  the  next  room,  are  not 
connected  with  any  of  the  previously-present  manifesta- 
tions, either  of  the  faint  or  of  the  vivid  order.  Often 
these  vivi^  manifestations,  arising  unexpectedly,  persist  in 
thrusting  themselves  across  the  current  of  the  faint  Ones ; 
which  not  only  cannot  directly  affect  them,  but  cannot 
'even  indirectly  affect  them.  A  wound  produced  .  by  a 
violent  blow  from  behind,  is  a  vivid  manifestation  the  con- 


THE   DATA  OF   PHILOSOPHY.  153 

dltions  of  occurrence  of  wliicli  were  neitlier  among  the  faint 
nor  among  the  vivid  manifestations ;  and  tlie  conditions  to 
tlie  persistence  of  wliicli  are  bound  up  witli  tlie  vivid  mani- 
festations in  some  unmanifested  way.  So  tliat  whereas  in 
the  faint  order^  the  conditions  of  occurrence  are  always 
among  the  pre-existing  or  co-existing  manifestations;  in 
the  vivid  order,  the  conditions  of  occurrence  are  often  not 
present. 

Thus  we  find  many  salient  characters  in  which  manifesta- 
tions of  the  one  order  are  like  one  another,,  and  unlike  those 
of  the  other  order.  Let  us  briefly  re-enumerate  these  salient 
characters.  Manifestations  of  the  one  order  are  vivid  and 
those  of  the  other  are  faint.  Those  of  the  one  order  arc 
originals,  while  those  of  the  other  order  are  copies.  The 
first  form  with  one  another  a  series,  or  heterogeneous  current, 
that  is  never  broken;  and  the  second  also  form  with  one 
another  a  parallel  series  or  current  that  is  never  broken :  or,  to 
speak  strictly,  no  breakage  of  either  is  ever  directly  known. 
Those  of  the  first  order  cohere  with  one  another,  not  only 
longitudinally  but  also  transversely ;  as  do  also  those  of  tho 
second  order  with  one  another.  Between  manifestations  of 
the  first  order  the  cohesions,  both  longitudinal  and  trans- 
verse, are  indissoluble;  but  between  manifestations  of  the 
second  order,  these  cohesions  are  most  of  them  dissoluble 
with  case.  While  tho  members  of  each  series  or  current  are ' 
so  coherent  with  one  another  that  the  current  cannot  be 
broken,  the  two  currents,  running  side  by  side  as  they  do, 
have  but  little  coherence — the  great  body  of  the  vivid 
current  is  absolutely  unmodifiable  by  the  faint,  and  the  faint 
may  become  almost  separate  from  the  vivid.  The  conditions 
under  which  manifestations  of  either  order  occur,  themselves 
belong  to  that  order ;  but  whereas  in  the  faint  order,  the 
conditions  are  always  present,  in  the  vivid  order  the  condi- 
tions are  often  not  present,  but  lie  somewhere  outside  of  the 
series.  Seven  separate  characters,  then,  mark  off  these  two 
i)rders  of  manifestations  from  one  another. 


154  THE   DATA  OF   PHILOSOPHY. 

§  44.  What  is  tlio  meaning  of  tliis  ?  The  foregoing 
analysis  was  commenced  in  the  belief  that  the  proposition 
postulated  by  Philosophy^  must  affirm  some  ultimate  classes 
of  likenesses  and  unlikenesses^  in  which  all  other  classes 
merge ;  and  here  we  have  found  that  all  manifestations  of 
the  Unknowable  are  divisible  into  two  such  classes.  "What 
is  the  division  equivalent  to  ? 

Obviously  it  corresponds  to  the  division  between  object 
and  suhject.  ■  This  profoundest  of  distinctions  among  tho 
manifestations  of  the  Unknowable^  we  recognize  by  grouping 
them  into  self  and  not-self.  These  faint  manifestations, 
forming  a  continuous  whole  differing  from  the  other  in  tho 
quantity,  quality,  cohesion,  and  conditions  of  existence  of 
its  parts,  we  call  the  ego ;  and  these  vivid  manifestations, 
indissolubly  bound  together  in  relatively-immense  masses, 
and  having  independent  conditions  of  existence,  we  call  tho 
non-ego.  Or  rather,  more  truly — each  order  of  manifesta- 
tions carries  with  it  the  irresistible  implication  of  some 
power  that  manifests  itself;  and  by  the  words  ego  and  non- 
ego  respectively,  we  mean  the  power  that  manifests  itself  in 
the  faint  forms,  and  the  power  that  manifests  itself  in  the 
vivid  forms. 

As  we  here  see,  these  consolidated  conceptions  thus  anti- 
thetically named,  do  not  originate  in  some  inscrutable  way  ; 
but  they  have  for  their  explanation  the  ultimate  law  of 
thought  that  is  beyond  appeal.  The  persistent  conscious- 
ness of  hkeness  or  difference,  is  one  which,  by  its  very  per- 
sistence, makes  itself  accepted ;  and  one  which  transcends 
scepticism,  since  without  it  even  doubt  becomes  impossible. 
And  the  primordial  division  of  self  from  not-self,  is  a  cumu- 
lative result  of  persistent  consciousnesses  of  likenesses  and 
differences  among  manifestations.  Indeed,  thought  exists 
only  through  that  kind  of  act  which  leads  us,  from  moment 
to  moment,  to  refer  certain  manifestations  to  the  one  class 
with  which  they  have  so  many  common  attributes,  and 
others  to  the  other  class  with  which  they  have  common 


THE   DATA   OF   PHILOSOPHY.  155 

RttriLntcs  equally  numerous.  And  tlie  myriad-fold  repeti- 
tion of  tliese  classings,  bringing  about  tbe  myriad-fold  asso- 
ciations of  each,  manifestation  with  those  of  its  own  class, 
bi'ings  about  this  union  among  the  members  of  each  class, 
and  this  disunion  of  the  two  classes. 

Strictly  speaking,  this  segregation  of  the  manifestations 
and  coalescence  of  them  into  two  distinct  wholes,  is  in 
great  part  spontaneous,  and  precedes  all  dehberate  judg- 
ments ;  though  it  is  endorsed  by  such  judgments  when  they 
come  to  be  made.  For  the  manifestations  of  each  order 
have  not  simply  that  kind  of  union  implied  by  grouping 
them  as  individual  objects  of  the  same  class ;  but,  as  wo 
have  seen,  they  have  the  much  more  intimate  union  implied 
by  actual  cohesion.  This  cohesive  union  exhibits  itself 
before  any  conscious  acts  of  classing  take  place.  So  that,  in 
truth,  these  two  contrasted  orders  of  manifestations  are 
substantially  self-separated  and  self-consolidated.  The 
members  of  each,  by  clinging  to  one  another  and  parting 
from  their  opposites,  themselves  form  these  united  wholes 
constituting  object  and  subject.  It  is  this  self-union  which 
gives  to  these  wholes  formed  of  them,  their  individualities 
OS  wholes,  and  that  separateness  from  each  other  which 
transcends  judgment;  and  judgment  merely  aids  the  pre- 
determined segregation  by  assigning  to  their  respective 
classes,  such  manifestations  as  have  not  distinctly  uuited 
themselves  with  the  rest  of  their  kind. 

One  further  perpetually-repeated  act  of  judgment  there  is, 
indeed,  which  strengthens  this  fundamental  antithesis,  and 
gives  a  vast  extension  to  one  term  of  it.  We  continually 
learn  that'  while  the  conditions  of  occurrence  of  faint  mani- 
festations are  always  to  be  found,  the  conditions  of  oc- 
currence of  vivid  manifestations  are  often  not  to  be  found. 
We  also  continually  learn  that  vivid  manifestations  which 
fiave  no  perceivable  antecedents  among  the  vivid  manifesta- 
tions, are  like  certain  preceding  ones  which  had  perceivable 
antecedents  among  the  vivid  manifestations.     Joining  these 


15G  THE    DATA   OF   PKILOSOPHY. 

two  experiences  togetlier,  there  results  the  irresistible  con- 
ception that  some  vivid  manifestations  have  conditions  of 
occurrence  existing  out  of  the  current  of  vivid  manifesta- 
tions— ^existing  as  potential  vivid  manifestations  capable  of 
becoming  actual.  And  so  we  are  made  vaguely  conscious 
of  an  indefinitely-extended  region  of  power  or  being,  not 
merely  separate  from  the  current  of  faint  manifestations 
constituting  the  ego,  but  lying  beyond  the  current  of  vivid 
manifestations  constituting  the  immediately-present  portion 
of  the  non-ego, 

§  45.  In  a  very  imperfect  way,  passing  over  objections 
and  omitting  needful  explanations,  I  have  thus,  in  the 
narrow  space  that  could  properly  be  devoted  to  it,  indicated 
the  essential  nature  and  justification  of  that  primordial  pro- 
position which  Philosophy  requires  as  a  datum.  I  might, 
indeed,  safely  have  assumed  this  ultimate  truth;  which 
Common  Sense  asserts,  which  every  step  in  Science  takes  for 
granted,  and  which  no  metaphysician  ever  for  a  moment 
succeeded  in  expelling  from  consciousness.  Setting  out 
with  the  postulate  that  the  manifestations  of  the  Unknowable 
fall  into  the  two  separate  aggregates  constituting  the  world 
of  consciousness  and  the  world  beyond  consciousness,  I  might 
have  let  the  justification  of  this  postulate  depend  on  its 
subsequently-proved  congruity  with  every  re'sult  of  experi- 
ence, direct  and  indirect.  But  as  all  that  follows  proceeds 
upon  this  postulate,  it  seemed  desirable  briefly  to  indicate 
its  warrant,  with  the  view  of  shutting  out  criticisms  that 
might  else  be  made.  It  seemed  desirable  to  show  that  this 
fundamental  cognition  is  neither,  as  the  idealist  asserts,  an 
illusion,  nor  as  the  sceptic  thinks,  of  doubtful  worth,  nor  as  is 
held  by  the  natural  realist,  an  inexplicable  intuition;  but 
that  it  is  a  legitimate  deliverance  of  consciousness  elaborat- 
ing its  materials  after  the  laws  of  its  normal  action.  While, 
in  order  of  time,  the  establishment  of  this  distinction  precedes 
all  reasoning ;    and   while,   running  through   our    mental 


THE   DATA   OP   PHILOSOPHY.  157 

structure  as  it  does^  we  are  debarred  from  reasoning  about 
it  without  taking  for  granted  its  existence ;  analysis  never- 
theless enables  us  to  justify  the  assertion  of  its  existence^  by 
showing  that  it  is  also  the  outcome  of  a  classification  based 
on  accumulated  likenesses  and  accumulated  difierences.  In 
other  words — Eeasoning,  which  is  itself  but  a  formation  ol 
cohesions  among  manifestations,  here  strengthens,  by  the 
cohesions  it  forms,  the  cohesions  which  it  finds  already 
existing. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  data  of  Philosophy.  In  common 
with  Eeligion,  Philosophy  assumes  the  primordial  impUca- 
Hon  of  consciousness,  which,  as  we  saw  in  the  last  part,  has 
the  deepest  of  all  foundations.  It  assumes  the  validity  of  a 
certain  primordial  ^process  of  consciousness,  without  which 
inference  is  impossible,  and  without  which  there  cannot 
even  be  either  afl&rmation  or  denial.  And  it  assumes  the 
validity  of  a  certain  primordial  jprodiict  of  consciousness, 
which  though  it  originates  in  an  earlier  process,  is  also,  in 
one  sense,  a  product  of  this  process,  since  by  this  process 
it  is  tested  and  stamped  as  genuine.  In  brief,  our  postu- 
lates are : — an  Unknowable  Power ;  the  existence  of  know- 
able  likenesses  and  difierences  among  the  manifestations  of 
that  Power;  and  a  resulting  segregation  of  the  manifes- 
tations into  those  of  subject  and  object. 

Before  proceeding  with  the  substantial  business  of  Philo- 
sophy— ^the  complete  unification  of  the  knowledge  partially 
unified  by  Science,  a  further  preliminary  is  needed.  The 
manifestations  of  the  Unknowable,  separated  into  the  two 
divisions  of  self  and  not-self,  are  re-divisible  into  certain 
most  general  forms,  the  reality  of  which  Science,  as  well  as 
Common  Sense,  from  moment  to  moment  assumes.  In  the 
chapter  on  "  Ultimate  Scientific  Ideas,"  it  was  shown  that 
we  know  nothing  of  these  forms,  considered  in  themselves. 
As,  nevertheless,  we  must  continue  to  use  the  words  signify- 
mg  them,  it  is  needful  to  say  what  interpretations  are  to  be 
put  on  these  words. 


CHAPTEH  in. 

8PACE^    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND  FORCS. 

§  46.  That  sceptical  state  of  mind  wliicli  the  criticisms  of 
Philosophy  usually  produce,  is,  in  greati  measure,  caused  by 
the  misinterpretation  of  words.  A  sense  of  universal  illusion 
ordinarily  follows  the  reading  of  metaphysics  ;  and  is  strong 
in  proportion  as  the  argument  has  appeared  conclusive.  This 
sense  of  universal  illusion  would  probably  never  have  arisen, 
had  the  terms  used  been  always  rightly  construed.  Unfor- 
tunately, these  terms  have  by  association  acquired  meanings 
that  are  quite  different  from  those  given  to  them  in  philoso- 
phical discussions ;  and  the  ordinary  meanings  being  un- 
avoidably suggested,  there  results  more  or  less  of  that  dream- 
like idealism  which  is  so  incongruous  with  our  instinctive 
convictions.  The  word  phenomenon  and  its  equivalent  word 
appearance^  are  in  great  part  to  blame  for  this.  In  ordinary 
speech,  these  are  uniformly  employed  in  reference  to  visual 
perceptions.  Habit,  almost,  if  not  quite,  disables  us  from 
thinking  of  appearance  except  as  something  seen ;  and  though 
phenomenon  has  a  more  generalized  meaning,  yet  we  can- 
not rid  it  of  associations  with  appear ancCy  which  is  its  verbal 
equivalent.  "When,  therefore.  Philosophy  proves  that  our 
knowledge  of  the  external  world  can  be  but  phenomenal — 
when  it  concludes  that  tlie  things  of  which  we  are  conscious 
are  appearances ;  it  inevitably  arouses  in  us  the  notion  of  an 
illusiveness  like  that  to  which  our  visual  perceptions  are  so 
liable  in  comparison  with  our  tactual  perceptions.    Good  pic- 


SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND    FORCE.  159 

tuies  show  US  that  the  aspects  of  things  may  be  very  nearly 
simulated  by  colours  on  canvass.  The  looking-glass  still  more 
distinctly  proves  how  deceptive  is  sight  w^hen  unverified  by 
touch.  And  the  frequent  cases  in  which  we  misinterpret  the 
impressions  made  on  our  eyes,  and  think  we  see  something 
which  we  do  not  see,  further  shake  our  faith  in  vision.  So 
that  the  implication  of  uncertainty  has  infected  the  very  word 
appearance.  Hence,  Philosophy,  by  giving  it  an  extended 
meaning,  leads  us  to  think  of  all  our  senses  as  deceiving  us  in 
the  same  way  that  the  eyes  do  ;  and  so  makes  us  feel  ourselves 
floating  in  a  world  of  phantasms.  Had  phenomenon  and  ap- 
pearance no  such  misleading  associations,  little,  if  any,  of  this 
mental  confusion  would  result.  Or  did  we  in  place  of  them 
use  the  term  effect,  which  is  equally  applicable  to  all  impres- 
sions produced  on  consciousness  through  any  of  the  senses, 
and  which  carries  with  it  in  thought  the  necessary  correla- 
tive cause,  with  which  it  is  equally  real,  we  should  be  in  little 
danger  of  falling  into  the  insanities  of  idealism. 

Such  danger  as  there  might  stiU  remain,  would  disappear 
on  making  a  further  verbal  correction.  At  present,  the  con- 
fusion resulting  from  the  above  misinterpretation,  is  made 
greater  by  an  antithetical  misinterpretation.  We  increase 
the  seeming  unreality  of  that  phenomenal  existence  which 
we  can  alone  know,  by  contrasting  it  with  a  noumenal  exist- 
ence which  we  imagine  would,  if  we  coidd  know  it,  be  more 
truly  real  to  us,  But  we  delude  ourselves  with  a  verbal  fic- 
tion. "What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  real  ?  This 
is  the  question  which  underlies  every  metaphysical  inquiry ; 
and  the  neglect  of  it  is  the  remaining  cause  of  the  chronic 
antagonisms  of  metaphysicians.  In  the  interpretation  put  on 
the  word  real,  the  discussions  of  philosophy  retain  one  ele- 
ment of  the  vulgar  conception  of  things,  while  they  reject  all 
its  other  elements;  and  create  confusion  by  the  inconsistenc3\ 
The  peasant,  on  contemplating  an  object,  does  not  regard 
^hat  which  he  contemplates  as  something  in  himself,  but  be- 
lieves the  thing  of  which  he  \a  conscious  to  be  the  external 


100  SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND    FOECE. 

object — ^imagines  that  his  consciousness  extends  to  the  very 
place  wher's  the  object  lies :  to  him  the  appearance  and  the 
reality  are  one  and  the  same  thing.  The  metaphysician, 
however,  is  convinced  that  consciousness  cannot  embrace  the 
reality,  but  only  the  appearance  of  it ;  and  so  he  transfers  the 
appearance  into  consciousness  and  leaves  the  reality  outside. 
This  reality  left  outside  of  consciousness,  he  continues  to 
think  of  much  in  the  same  way  as  the  ignorant  man  thinks 
of  tlie  appearance.  Though  the  reality  is  asserted  to  be  out 
of  consciousness,  yet  the  realness  ascribed  to  it  is  constantly 
spoken  of  as  though  it  were  a  knowledge  possessed  apart  from 
consciousness.  It  seeins  to  be  forgotten  that  the  conception  of 
reality  can  be  nothing  more  than  some  mode  of  consciousness; 
and  that  the  question  to  be  considered  is — ^What  is  the  rela- 
tion between  this  mode  and  other  modes  ? 

By  reality  we  mean  persistence  in  consciousness;  a  per- 
sistence that  is  either  unconditional,  as  our  consciousness  of 
space,  or  that  is  conditional,  as  our  consciousness  of  a  body 
while  grasping  it.  The  real,  as  we  conceive  it,  is  distinguished 
solely  by  the  test  of  persistence ;  for  by  this  test  we  separate 
it  from  what  we  cairthe~ unreal.  Between  a  person  standing 
before  us,  and  the  idea  of  such  a  person,  we  discriminate  by 
our  ability  to  expel  the  idea  from  consciousness,  and  our  in- 
ability, while  looking  at  him,  to  expel  the  person  from  con- 
sciousness. And  when  in  doubt  as  to  the  validity  or  illusive- 
ness  of  some  impression  made  upon  us  in  the  dusk,  we  settle 
the  matter  by  observing  whether  the  impression  persists  on 
closer  observation ;  and  we  predicate  reality  if  the  persistence 
is  complete.  How  truly  persistence  is  what  we  mean 

by  reality,  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  when,  after  criticism  has 
proved  that  the  real  as  we  are  conscious  of  it  is  not  the  ob- 
jectively real,  the  indefinite  notion  which  we  form  of  the  ob- 
jectively real,  is  of  something  which  persists  absolutely,  under 
all  changes  of  mode,  form,  or  appearance.  And  the  fact  that 
we  cannot  form  even  an  indefinite  notion  of  the  absolutely 
real,  except  as  the  absolutely  persistent,  clearly  impKes  that 


SPACE,    TIME,    MATTEEj    MOTION,    AND    FORCE.  161 

persistence  is  our  ultimate  test  of  tlie  real  as  present  to  con- 
sciousness. 

Eeality  then,  as  we  tliink  it,  being  notMng  more  than 
persistence  in  consciousness,  the  result  must  be  the  same  to 
us  whether  that  which  we  perceive  be  the  Unknowable 
itself,  or  an  effect  invariably  wrought  on  us  by  the  Unknow- 
able. If,  under  constant  conditions  furnished  by  our  con- 
stitutions, some  Power  of  which  the  nature  is  beyond 
conception,  always  produces  some  mode  of  consciousness — 
if  this  mode  of  consciousness  is  as  persistent  as  would  be 
this  Power  were  it  in  consciousness ;  the  reality  will  be  to 
consciousness  as  complete  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
Were  Unconditioned  Being  itself  present  in  thought,  it 
could  but  bo  persistent;  and  if,  instead,  there  is  present 
Being  conditioned  by  the  forms  of  thought,  but  no  less 
persistent,  it  must  be  to  us  no  less  real. 

Hence  there  may  be  drawn  these  conclusions  : — First,  that 
v\-e  have  an  indefinite  consciousness  of  an  absolute  reality 
transcending  relations,  which  is  produced  by  the  absolute 
persistence  in  us  of  something  which  survives  all  changes  of 
relation.  Second,  that  we  have  a  definite  consciousness  of 
relative  reality,  which  unceasingly  persists  in  us  under  one 
or  other  of  its  forms,  and  under  each  form  so  long  as  the  con- 
ditions of  presentation  are  fulfilled;  and  that  the  relative 
reality,  being  thus  continuously  persistent  in  us,  is  as  real  to 
us  as  would  be  the  absolute  reahty  could  it  be  immediately 
known.  Third,  that  thought  being  possible  only  under  rela- 
tion, the  relative  reality  can  be  conceived  as  such  only  in  con- 
nexion with  an  absolute  reality  ;  and  the  connexion  between 
the  two  being  absolutely  persistent  in  our  consciousness,  is 
real  in  the  same  sense  as  the  terms  it  unites  are  real; 

Thus  then  we  may  resume,  with  entire  confidence,  those 
realistic  conceptions  which  philosophy  at  first  sight  seems  to 
dissipate.  Though  reality  under  the  forms  of  our  conscious- 
ness, is  but  a  conditioned  effect  of  the  absolute  reality,  yet 
this  conditioned  effect  standing  in  indissoluble  relation  with 
its  unconditioned  cause,  and  being  equally  persistent  with  it 


162  SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,   AND   FORCE. 

BO  long  as  the  conditions  persist,  is,  to  tlie  consciousness  sup- 
plying those  conditions,  equally  real.  The  persistent  impres- 
sions being  the  persistent  results  of  a  persistent  cause,  are  for 
practical  purposes  the  same  to  us  as  the  cause  itself ;  and  may 
be  habitually  dealt  with  as  its  equivalents.  Somewhat  in  the 
same  way  that  our  visual  perceptions,  though  merely  symbols 
found  to  be  the  equivalents  of  tactual  perceptions,  are  yet  so 
identified  with  those  tactual  perceptions  that  we  actually  ap- 
pear to  see  the  solidity  and  hardness  which  we  do  but  infer, 
and  thus  conceive  as  objects  what  are  only  the  signs  of  objects ; 
so,  on  a  higher  stage,  do  we  deal  with  these  relative  realities 
as  though  they  were  absolutes  instead  of  efiects  of  the  abso- 
lute. And  we  may  legitimately  continue  so  to  deal  with  them 
as  long  as  the  conclusions  to  which  they  help  us  are  understood 
as  relative  realities  and  not  absolute  ones. 

This  general  conclusion  it  now  remains  to  interpret  speci- 
fically, in  its  application  to  each  of  our  ultimate  scientific 
ideas. 

§  47.  *  We  think  in  relations.  This  is  truly  the  form  of 
all  thought ;  and  if  there  are  any  other  forms,  they  must  be 
derived  from  this.  We  have  seen  (Chap.  iii.  Part  I.)  that 
the  several  ultimate  modes  of  being  cannot  be  known  or  con- 
ceived as  they  exist  in  themselves  ;  that  is,  out  of  relation  to 
our  consciousness.  We  have  seen,  by  anatyzing  the  pro- 
duct of  thought,  (§  23,)  that  it  always  consists  of  reJations  ; 
and  cannot  include  anything  beyond  the  most  general  of  these. 
On  analyzing  the  process  of  thought,  we  found  that  cogni- 
tion of  the  Absolute  was  impossible,  because  it  presented 
neither  relation,  nor  its  elements — difference  and  likeness. 
Further,  we  found  that  not  only  Intelligence  but  Life  itself, 
consists  in  the  establishment  of  internal  relations  in  cori*e- 
spondence  with  external  relations.     And  lastly,  it  was  shown 

•  For  the  psychological  conclusions  briefly  sot  forth  in  this  and  the  three  sec- 
tions following  it,  the  justification  wil  be  found  in  the  writer's  Trincipks  oj 
Ttychology. 


SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND    FORCE.  163 

that  though,  by  the  relativity  of  our  thought  we  are  eternally 
debarred  from  knowing  or  conceiving  Absolute  Being  ;  yet 
that  this  very  relativity  of  our  thought,  necessitates  that  vague 
consciousness  of  Absolute  Being  which  no  mental  effort  can 
suppress.  That  relation  is  the  universal  form  of  thought,  is 
thus  a  truth  which  all  kinds  of  demonstration  unite  in 
proving. 

By  the  transcendentalists,  certain  other  phenomena  of  con- 
sciousness are  regarded  as  forms  of  thought.  Presuming 
that  relation  would  be  admitted  by  them  to  be  a  universal 
mental  forni,  they  would  class  with  it  two  others  as  also  uni- 
versal. Were  their  hypothesis  otherwise  tenable  however,  it 
must  still  be  rejected  if  such  alleged  further  forms  are  inter- 
pretable  as  generated  by  the  primary  form.  If  we  think  in 
relations,  and  if  relations  have  certain  universal  forms,  it  is 
manifest  that  such  universal  forms  of  relations  will  become 
universal  forms  of  our  consciousness.  And  if  these  further 
universal  forms  are  thus  explicable,  it  is  superfluous,  and 
therefore  unphilosophical,  to  assign  them  an  independent 
origin.  Now  relations  are  of  two  orders — relations 

of  sequence,  and  relations  of  co- existence  ;  of  which  the  one 
is  original  and  the  other  derivative.  The  relation  of  sequence 
is  given  in  every  change  of  consciousness.  I'he  relation  of 
co-existence,  which  cannot  be  originally  given  in  a  conscious- 
ness of  which  the  states  are  serial,  becomes  distinguished  only 
when  it  is  found  that  certain  relations  of  sequence  have  their 
terms  presented  in  consciousness  in  either  order  with  equal 
facility;  while  the  others  are  presented  only  in  one  order, 
llelations  of  which  the  terms  are  not  reversible,  become  re- 
cognized as  sequences  proper ;  while  relations  of  which  the 
terms  occur  indifferently  in  both  directions,  become  recog- 
nized as  CO' existences.  Endless  experiences,  which  from 
moment  to  moment  present  both  orders  of  these  relations, 
render  the  distinction  between  them  perfectly  definite ; 
and  at  the  same  time  generate  an  abstract  conception  of 
each.     The  abstrasLiiLalls^quences  is  Time.     The  abstract 


l(>4  SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND    FORCE, 

of  all  co-existence8is_Space.  From  the  fact  that  in  tliouglit, 
Time  is  inseparable  from  sequence,  and  Space  from  co-exist- 
ence, we  do  not  here  infer  that  Time  and  Space  are  original 
conditions  of  consciousness  under  which  sequences  and  co- 
existences are  known ;  but  we  infer  that  our  conceptions  of 
Time  and  Space  are  generated,  as  other  abstracts  are  gener- 
ated from  other  concretes :  the  only  difference  being,  that 
the  organization  of  experiences  has,  in  these  cases,  been  going 
on  throughout  the  entire  evolution  of  intelligence. 

This  synthesis  is  confirmed  by  analysis.  Our  consciousness 
of  Space  is  a  consciousness  of  co-existent  positions.  Any  lim- 
ited portion  of  space  can  be  conceived  only  by  representing  its 
limits  as  co-existing  in  certain  relative  positions ;  and  each  of 
its  imagined  boundaries,  be  it  line  or  plane,  can  be  thought  of 
in  no  other  way  than  as  made  up  of  co-existent  positions  in 
close  proximity.  And  since  a  position  is  not  an  entity — since 
the  congeries  of  positions  which  constitute  any  conceived  por- 
tion of  space,  and  mark  its  bounds,  are  not  sensible  existences ; 
it  follows  that  the  co-existent  positions  which  make  up  our 
consciousness  of  Space,  are  not  co-existences  in  the  full  sense 
of  the  word  (which  implies  realities  as  their  terms),  but  are  the 
blank  forms  of  co- existences,  left  behind  when  the  realities  are 
absent ;   that  is,  are  the  abstracts  of  co-existences.  The 

experiences  out  of  which,  during  the  evolution  of  intel- 
ligence, this  abstract  of  all  co- existences  has  been  generated, 
are  experiences  of  individual  positions  as  ascertained  by  touch ; 
and  each  of  such  experiences  involves  the  resistance  of  an  ob- 
ject touched,  and  the  muscular  tension  which  measures  this 
resistance.  By  countless  unlike  muscular  adjustments,  involving 
unlike  muscular  tensions,  different  resisting  positions  are  dis- 
closed ;  and  these,  as  they  can  be  experienced  in  one  order  as 
readily  as  another,  we  regard  as  co-existing.  But  since,  mi- 
der  other  circumstances,  the  same  muscular  adjustments  do 
not  produce  contact  with  resisting  positions,  there  result  the 
same  states  of  consciousness,  minus  the  resistances — blank 
forms  of  co-existence  from  which  the  co-existent  objects  before 


SPACE,   TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND   FORCE.  165 

experienced  are  absent  And  from  a  building  up  of  tbese,  loo 
elaborate  to  be  here  detailed,  results  that  abstract  of  all  rela- 
tions of  co-existence  wbich  we  call  Space.  It  remains 
only  to  point  out,  as  a  thing  wbicb  we  mitst  not  forget,  tbat 
tbe  experiences  from  whicb.  tbe  consciousness  of  Space  ^ises, 
are  experiences  oi  force.  A  certain  correlation  of  tbe  muscu- 
lar forces  we  ourselves  exercise,  is  tbe  index  of  each  position 
as  originally  disclosed  to  us  ;  and  tbe  resistance  wbicb  makes 
us  aware  of  sometbing  existing  in  tbat  position,  is  an  equi- 
valent of  tbe  pressure  we  consciously  exert.  Tbus,  experiences 
of  forces  variously  correlated,  are  tbose  from  wbicb  our  con- 
sciousness of  Space  is  abstracted. 

Tbat  wbicb  we  know  as  Space  being  tbus  sbown,  alike  by 
its  genesis  and  definition,  to  be  purely  relative,  wbat  are  we 
to  say  of  tbat  wbicb  causes  it  ?  Is  tbere  an  absolute  Space 
wbicb  relative  Space  in  some  sort  represents  ?  Is  Space  in  it- 
self a  form  or  condition  of  absolute  existence,  producing  in 
our  minds  a  corresponding  form  or  condition  of  relative  exist- 
ence ?  Tbese  are  unanswerable  questions.  Our  conception 
of  Space  is  produced  by  some  mode  of  tbe  Unknowable  ;  and 
tbe  complete  uncbangeableness  of  our  conception  of  it  simply 
implies  a  complete  uniformity  in  tbe  effects  wrought  by  this 
mode  of  the  Unknowable  upon  us.  But  therefore  to  call  it  a 
necessary  mode  of  tbe  Unknowable,  is  illegitimate.  All  we 
can  assert  is,  that  Space  is  a  relative  reality  ;  tbat  our  consci- 
ousness of  this  unchanging  relative  reality  implies  an  absolute 
reality  equally  unchanging  in  so  far  as  we  are  concerned ; 
and  that  the  relative  reality  may  be  unhesitatingly  accepted 
in  thought  as  a  valid  basis  for  our  reasonings  ;  whicb,  when 
rightly  carried  on,  wiU  bring  us  to  truths  tbat  have  a  like 
relative  reality — tbe  only  truths  which  concern  us  or  can 
possibly  be  known  to  us. 

Concerning  Time,  relative  and  absolute,  a  parallel  argu- 
ment leads  to  parallel  conclusions.  Tbese  are  too  obvious  to 
need  specifying  in  detail. 


16G  SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND    FORCE. 

§  48.  Our  conception  of  Matter,  reduced  to  its  simplest  shape, 
is  that  of  co-existent  positions  that  offer  resistance ;  as  con- 
trasted wdth  our  conception  of  Space,  in  which  the  co-existcnt 
positions  offer  no  resistance.  We  think  of  Body  as  bounded 
by  surfaces  that  resist ;  and  as  made  up  throughout  of  parts 
that  resist.  Mentally  abstract  the  co-existent  resistances,  and 
the  consciousness  of  Body  disappears  ;  leaving  behind  it  the 
consciousness  of  Space.  And  since  the  group  of  co-existing 
resistent  positions  constituting  a  portion  of  matter,  is  uniform- 
ly capable  of  giving  us  impressions  of  resistance  in  combina- 
tion with  various  muscular  adjustments,  according  as  we 
touch  its  near,  its  remote,  its  right,  or  its  left  side ;  it  results 
that  as  different  muscular  adjustments  habitually  indicate  dif- 
ferent CO- existences,  we  are  obliged  to  conceive  every  portion 
of  matter  as  containing  more  than  one  resistent  position — that 
is,  as  occupying  Space.  Hence  the  necessity  we  are  under  of 
representing  to  ourselves  the  ultimate  elements  of  Matter  as 
being  at  once  extended  and  resistent :  this  being  the  univer- 
sal form  of  our  sensible  experiences  of  Matter,  becomes  the 
form  which  our  conception  of  it  cannot  transcend,  however 
minute  the  fragments  which  imaginary  subdivisions  pro- 
duce. Of  these  two  inseparable  elements,  the  resist- 
ance is  primary,  and  the  extension  secondary.  Occupied  ex- 
tension, or  Body,  being  distinguished  in  consciousness  from 
imoccupied  extension,  or  Space,  by  its  resistance,  this  attribute 
must  clearly  have  precedence  in  the  genesis  of  the  idea.  Such  a 
conclusion  is,  indeed,  an  obvious  corollary  from  that  at  which 
we  arrived  in  the  foregoing  section.  If,  as  was  there  contend- 
ed, our  consciousness  of  Space  is  a  product  of  accumulated  ex- 
periences, partly  our  own  but  chiefly  ancestral — if,  as  was 
pointed  out,  the  experiences  from  which  our  consciousness  of 
Space  is  abstracted,  can  be  received  only  through  impressions 
of  resistance  made  upon  the  organism  ;  the  necessary  inference 
is,  that  experiences  of  resistance  being  those  from  which  the 
conception  of  Space  is  generated,  the  resistance-attribute  of 
Matter  must  be  regarded  as  primordial  and  the  space-attribute 


SPACE,    TIME,    MATTEK,    MOTION,    AND   FORCE.  167 

as  derivative.  Whence  it  becomes  manifest  that  our 

experience  oiforce^  is  that  out  of  which  the  idea  of  Matter  is 
built.  Matter  as  opposing  our  muscular  energies,  being  im- 
mediately present  to  consciousness  in  terms  of  force ;  and  its 
occupancy  of  Space  being  known  by  an  abstract  of  experiences 
originally  given  in  terms  of  force;  it  follows  that  forces, 
standing  in  certain  correlations,  form  the  whole  content  of 
our  idea  of  Matter. 

Such  being  our  cognition  of  the  relative  reality,  what  are 
we  to  say  of  the  absolute  reality  ?  We  can  only  say  that  it 
is  some  mode  of  the  Unknowable,  related  to  the  Matter  we 
know,  as  cause  to  effect.  The  relativity  of  our  cognition  of 
Matter  is  shown  alike  by  the  above  analysis,  and  by  the  con- 
tradictions which  are  evolved  when  we  deal  with  the  cogni- 
tion as  an  absolute  one  (§  16).  But,  as  we  have  lately  seen, 
though  known  to  us  only  under  relation.  Matter  is  as  real  in 
the  true  sense  of  that  word,  as  it  would  be  could  we  know  it 
out  of  relation ;  and  further,  the  relative  reality  which  we 
know  as  Matter,  is  necessarily  represented  to  the  mind  as 
standing  in  a  persistent  or  real  relation  to  the  absolute  real- 
ity. We  may  therefore  deliver  ourselves  over  with- 
out hesitation,  to  those  terms  of  thought  which  experience  has 
organized  in  us.  We  need  not  in  our  physical,  chemical, 
or  other  researches,  refrain  from  dealing  with  Matter  as  made 
up  of  extended  and  resistent  atoms  ;  for  this  conception,  ne- 
cessarily resulting  from  our  experiences  of  Matter,  is  not  less 
legitimate  than  the  conception  of  aggregate  masses  as  extend- 
ed and  resistent.  The  atomic  hypothesis,  as  well  as  the  kindred 
hj'pothesis  of  an  all-pervading  ether  consisting  of  molecules,  is 
simply  a  necessary  development  of  those  universal  forms  which 
the  actions  of  the  Unknowable  have  wi'ought  in  us.  The  con- 
clusions logically  worked  out  by  the  aid  of  these  hypotheses,  are 
sure  to  be  in  harmony  with  all  others  which  these  same  forms 
involve,  and  will  have  a  relative  truth  that  is  equally  complete. 

§  49.  The  conception  of  Motion  as  presented  or  represented 


168  SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND   FORCE. 

in  tlie  developed  consciousness,  involves  tlie  conceptions  of 
Space,  of  Time,  and  of  Matter.     A  sometliing  tliat  moves  ;  a 
series  of  positions  occupied  in  succession  ;  and  a  group  of  co- 
existent positions  united  in  thought  with  the  successive  ones 
— these  are  the  constituents  of  the  idea.     And  since,  as  we 
have  seen,  these  are  severally  elaborated  from  experiences  of 
force  as  given  in  certain  correlations,  it  follows  that  from  a 
further  synthesis  of  such  experiences,  the  idea  of  Motion  is 
also  elaborated.     A  certain  other  element  in  the  idea,  which 
is  in  truth  its  fundamental  element,  (namely,  the  necessity 
which  the  moving  body  is  im.der  to  go  on  changiug  its  posi- 
tion), results  immediately  from  the  earliest  experiences  offeree. 
Movements  of  different  parts  of  the  organism  in  relation  to 
each  other,  are  the  first  presented  in  consciousness.     These, 
produced  by  the  action  of  the  muscles,  necessitate  reactions 
upon  consciousness  in  the  shape  of  sensations  of  muscular  ten 
sion.     Consequently,  each  stretching-out  or  drawing-in  of  a 
limb,  is  originally  known  as  a  series  of  muscular  tensions, 
varying  in  intensity  as  the  position  of  the  limb  changes.    And 
this  rudimentary  consciousness  of  Motion,  consisting  of  serial 
impressions  of  force,  becomes  inseparably  united  with  the 
consciousness  of  Space  and  Time  as  fast  as  these  are  abstract- 
ed from  further  impressions  of  force.     Or  rather,  out  of  this 
primitive  conception  of  Motion,  the  adult  conception  of  it  h 
developed  simultaneously  with  the  development  of  the  con- 
ceptions of  Space  and  Time  :  all  three  being  evolved  from  the 
more  multiplied  and  varied  impressions  of  muscular  tension 
and  objective  resistance.    Motion,  as  we  know  it,  is  thus  trace- 
able, in  common  with  the  other  ultimate  scientific  ideas,  to  ex- 
periences of  force. 

That  this  relative  reality  answers  to  some  absolute  reality, 
it  is  needful  only  for  form's  sake  to  assert.  What  has  been 
said  above,  respecting  the  Unlaiown  Cause  which  produces  in 
us  the  efiects  called  Matter,  Space,  and  Time,  wiU  apply,  on 
eimply  changing  the  terms,  to  Motion. 


S1^\CE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND    FORCE.  169 

§  50.    We  come  down  then  finally  to  Force,  ^sthejdtiiaate 
of  ultimates.     Though  Space,  Time,  Matter,  and  Motion,  are 
apparently  all  necessary  data  of  intelligence,  yet  a  psychologi- 
cal analysis  (here  indicated  only  in  rude  outline)  shows  us 
that  these  are  either  built  up  of,  or  abstracted  from,  experi- 
ences of  Force.     Matter  and  Motion,  as  we  know  them,  are 
diiferently  conditioned  manifestations  of  Force.     Space  and 
Time,  as  we  know  them,  are  disclosed  along  with  these  differ- 
ent manifestations  of  Force  as  the  conditions  under  which 
they  are  presented.     Matter  and  Motion  are  concretes  built 
up  from  the  contents  of  various  mental  relations  ;  while  Space 
and  Time  are  abstracts  of  the  forms  of  these  various  rela- 
tions.    Deeper  dowTi  than  these,  however,  are  the  primordial 
experiences  of  Force,  w^hich,  as  occurring  in  consciousness 
in   different    combinations,   supply    at    once   the    materials 
whence  the  forms  of  relations  are  generalized,  and  the  re- 
lated  objects   built   up.      A   single  impression   of  force   is 
manifestly  receivable  by  a  sentient  being  devoid  of  mental 
forms :    grant  but  sensibility,  with  no  estabKshed  power  of 
thought,  and  a  force  producing  some  nervous  change,  will 
still  be  presentable  at  the  supposed  seat  of  sensation.    Though 
no  single  impression  o'f  force  so  received,  could  itself  produce 
consciousness  (which  implies  relations  between  different  states), 
yet  a  multiplication  of  such  impressions,  differing  in  kind 
and   degree,   would    give  the  materials    for   the   establish- 
ment of  relations,  that  is,  of  thought.     And  if  such  rela- 
tions differed  in  their  forms  as  well  as  in  their  contents, 
the  impressions  of  such  forms  would  be  organized  simultane- 
ously with  the  impressions  they  contained.     Thus  all  other 
modes  of  consciousness  are   derivable   from   experiences   of 
Force ;    but  experiences  of  Force  are  not  derivable  from  any- 
thing else.     Indeed,  it  needs  but  to  remember  that  conscious- 
ness consists  of  changes,  to  see  that  the  ultimate  datum  of  con- 
sciousness must  be  that  of  which  change  is  the  manifestation  ; 
and  that  thus  the  force  by  which  we  ourselves  produce  changes, 


170  SPACE,    TIME,    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND    FORCE. 

and  which  serves  to  symbolize  the  cause  of  changes  in  general, 
is  the  final  disclosure  of  analysis. 

It  is  a  truism  to  say  that  the  nature  of  this  undecomposable 
element  of  our  knowledge  is  inscrutable.  If,  to  use  an  algebraic 
illustration,  we  represent  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force,  by  the 
symbols  x,  y,  and  z  ;  then,  we  may  ascertain  the  yalues  of  x 
and  y  in  terms  of  z  ;  but  the  value  of  z  can  never  be  found  :  z 
is  the  unknown  quantity  which  must  for  ever  remain  unknown ; 
for  the  obvious  reason  that  there  is  nothing  in  which  itsjvahia. 
can  be  expressed.  It  is  within  the  possible  reach  of  our  in- 
telligence to  go  on  simplifying  the  equations  of  aU  phenomena, 
until  the  complex  symbols  which  formulate  them  are  reduced 
to  certain  functions  of  this  ultimate  symbol ;  but  when  we 
have  done  this,  we  have  reached  that  limit  which  eternally 
divides  science  from  nescience. 

That  this  undecomposable  mode  of  consciousness  into 
which  all  other  modes  may  be  decomposed,  cannot  be  itself 
the  Power  manifested  to  us  through  phenomena,  has  been 
already  proved  (§  18).  We  saw  that  to  assume  an  identity 
of  nature  between  the  cause  of  changes  as  it  absolutely  exists, 
and  that  cause  of  change  of  which  we  are  conscious  in  our  own 
muscular  efforts,  betrays  us  into  alternative  impossibilities  of 
thought.  Force,  as  we  know  it,  can  be  regarded  only  as  a 
certain  conditioned  effect  of  the  Unconditioned  Cause — as  the 
relative  reality  indicating  to  us  an  Absolute  Reality  by  which 
it  is  immediately  produced.  And  here,  indeed,  we  see  even 
more  clearly  than  before,  how  inevitable  is  that  transfigured 
realism  to  which  sceptical  criticism  finally  brings  us  round. 
Getting  rid  of  all  complications,  and  contemplating  pure 
Force,  we  are  irresistibly  compelled  by  the  relativity  of  our 
thought,  to  vaguely  conceive  some  unknown  force  as  the 
correlative  of  the  known  force.  Noumenon  and  phenome- 
non are  here  presented  in  their  primordial  relation  as 
two  sides  of  the  same  change,  of  which  we  are  obliged 
to  regard  the  last  as  no  less  real  than  the  first. 


SPACE^    TIME;    MATTER,    MOTION,    AND   FORCE.  171 

§  51.  In  closing  tMs  exposition  of  tlie  derivative  data 
needed  by  Pliilosopliy  as  the  unifier  of  Science,  we  may 
properly  glance  at  their  relations  to  the  primordial  data,  set 
forth  in  the  last  chapter. 

An  Unknown  Cause  of  the  known  eiSects  which  we  call 
phenomena,  hkenesses  and  difierences  among  these  known 
effects,  and  a  segregation  of  the  effects  into  subject  and 
object — these  are  the  postulates  without  which  we  cannot 
think.  Within  each  of  the  segregated  masses  of  manifesta- 
tions, there  are  likenesses  and  differences  involving  se- 
condary segregations,  which  have  also  become  indispensable 
postulates.  The  vivid  manifestations  constituting  the  non- 
ego  do  not  simply  cohere,  but  their  cohesions  have  certain 
invariable  modes ;  and  among  the  faint  manifestations  con- 
stituting the  egOf  which  are  products  of  the  vivid,  there 
exist  corresponding  modes  of  cohesion.  These  modes  of  co- 
hesion under  which  manifestations  are  invariably  presented, 
and  therefore  invariably  represented,  we  call,  when  contem- 
plated apart.  Space  and  Time,  and  when  contemplated  along 
with  the  manifestations  themselves.  Matter  and  Motjoiu 
The  ultimate  natm^es  of  these  modes  are  as  unknown  as  is 
the  ultimate  nature  of  that  which  is  manifested.  But  just 
the  same  warrant  which  we  have  for  asserting  that  subject 
and  object  coexist,  we  have  for  asserting  that  the  vivid 
manifestations  we  call  objective,  exist  under  certain  constant 
conditions,  that  are  symboHzed  by  these  constant  conditions 
among  the  manifestations  we  call  subjective. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   INDESTRUCTIBILITY   OF   MATTER. 

§  b2.  Not  because  the  truth  is  unfamiliar,  is  it  needful 
hero  to  say  something  concerning  the  indestructibility  of 
Matter ;  but  partly  because  the  sjnnmetry  of  our  argument 
demands  the  enunciation  of  this  truth,  and  partly  because 
the  evidence  on  which  it  is  accepted  requires  examination. 
Could  it  be  shown,  or  could  it  with  any  rationality  be  even 
supposed,  that  Matter,  either  in  its  aggregates  or  in  its 
units,  ever  became  non-existent,  there  would  be  need  either 
to  ascertain  under  what  conditions  it  became  non-existent, 
or  else  to  confess  that  Science  and  Philosophy  are  impos- 
sible. For  if,  instead  of  having  to  deal  with  fixed  quantities 
and  weights,  we  had  to  deal  with  quantities  and  weights 
which  were  apt,  wholly  or  in  part,  to  be  annihilated,  there 
would  be  introduced  an  incalculable  element,  fatal  to  all 
positive  conclusions.  Clearly,  therefore,  the  proposition 
that  matter  is  indestructible  must  be  deliberately  con- 
sidered. 

So  far  from  being  admitted  as  a  self-evident  truth,  this 
would,  in  primitive  times,  have  been  rejected  as  a  self-evident 
error.  There  was  once  universally  current,  a  notion  that  things 
could  vanish  into  absolute  nothing,  or  arise  out  of  absolute 
nothing.  If  we  analyze  early  superstitions,  or  that  faith  in 
magic  which  was  general  in  later  times  and  e"ven  still .  sur- 
vives among  the  uncultured,  we  find  one  of  its  postulates  to 
be,  that  by  some  potent  spell  Matter  can  be  called  out  of  non- 
entity, and  can  be  made  non-existent.    If  men  did  not  believe 


THE   INDESTEUCTIBILITY   OP   MATTER.  173 

this  in  tlie  strict  sense  of  tlie  word  (wliicli  would  imply- 
that  the  process  of  creation  or  annihilation  was  clearly  repre- 
sented in  consciousness),  they  still  believed  that  they  believed 
it;  and  how  nearly,  in  their  confused  thoughts,  the  one  was 
equivalent  to  the  other,  is  shown  by  their  conduct.  Nor,  in- 
deed, have  dark  ages  and  inferior  minds  alone  betrayed  this 
belief.  The  current  theology,  in  its  teachings  respecting  the 
beginning  and  end  of  the  world,  is  clearly  pervaded  by  it ; 
and  it  may  be  even  questioned  whether  Shakespeare,  in  his 
poetical  anticipation  of  a  time  when  all  things  shall  disap- 
pear and  "  leave  not  a  wrack  behind,"  was  not  under  its  in- 
fluence. The  gradual  accumulation  of  experiences, 
however,  and  still  more  the  organization  of  experiences,  has 
tended  slowly  to  reverse  this  conviction ;  until  now,  the  doc- 
trine that  Matter  is  indestructible  has  become  a  common- 
place. All  the  apparent  proofs  that  something  can  come  out 
of  nothing,  a  wider  knowledge  has  one  by  one  cancelled.  The 
comet  that  is  suddenly  discovered  in  the  heavens  and  nightly 
waxes  larger,  is  proved  not  to  be  a  newly-created  body,  but  a 
body  that  was  until  lately  beyond  the  range  of  vision.  The 
cloud  which  in  the  course  of  a  few  minutes  forms  in  the  sky, 
consists  not  of  substance  that  has  just  begun  to  be,  but  of 
substance  that  previously  existed  in  a  more  diffused  and 
transparent  form.  And  similarly  with  a  crystal  or  precipi- 
tate in  relation  to  the  fluid  depositing  it.  Conversely,  the 
seeming  annihilations  of  Matter  turn  out,  on  closer  observa- 
tion, to  be  only  changes  of  state.  It  is  found  that  the 
evaporated  water,  though  it  has  become  invisible,  may  be 
brought  by  condensation  to  its  original  shape.  The  dis- 
charged fowling-piece  gives  evidence  that  though  the 
gunpowder  has  disappeared,  there  have  appeared  in  place 
of  it  certain  gases,  which,  in  assuming  a  larger  volume, 
have  caused  the  explosion.  Not,  however,  until 
the  rise  of  quantitative  chemistry,  could  the  conclusion 
suggested  by  such  experiences  be  harmonized  with  all  the 
facts.  When,  having  ascertained  not  only  the  combina- 
9 


174  THE   INDESTRUCTIBILITY   OF   MATTER. 

tions  formed  by  various  substances,  but  also  tlie  proportions 
in  wliicli  tliey  combine,  cbemists  were  enabled  to, account 
for  the  matter  that  had  made  its  appearance  or  become  in- 
visible, scepticism  was  dissipated.  And  of  the  general  con- 
ckision  thus  reached,  the  exact  analyses  daily  made,  in  which 
the  same  portion  of  matter  is  pursued  through  numerous 
disguises  and  finally  separated,  furnish  never-ceasing  con- 
firmations. 

Such  has  become  the  effect  of  this  specific  evidence,  joined 
to  that  general  evidence  which  the  continued  existence  of 
familiar  objects  unceasingly  gives  us,  that  the  Indestructi- 
bility of  Matter  is  now  held  by  many  to  be  a  truth  of  which 
the  negation  is  inconceivable. 

§  53.  This  last  fact  naturally  raises  the  question,  whether 
we  have  any  higher  warrant  for  this  fundamental  belief  than 
the  warrant  of  conscious  induction.  Before  showing  that 
we  have  a  higher  warrant,  some  explanations  are  needful. 

The  consciousness  of  logical  necessity,  is  the  consciousness 
that  a  certain  conclusion  is  implicitly  contained  in  certain 
premises  explicitly  stated.  If,  contrasting  a  young  child 
and  an  adult,  we  see  that  this  consciousness  of  logical 
necessity,  absent  from  the  one  is  present  in  the  other,  we 
are  taught  that  there  is  a  growing  up  to  the  recognition  of 
certain  necessary  truths,  merely  by  the  unfolding  of  the 
inherited  intellectual  forms  and  faculties. 

To  state  the  case  more  specifically : — ^Before  a  truth 
can  be  known  as  necessary,  two  conditions  must  be  fulfilled. 
There  must  be  a  mental  structure  capable  of  grasping  the 
terms  of  the  proposition  and  the  relation  alleged  between 
them ;  and  there  must  be  such  definite  and  deliberate 
mental  representation  of  these  terms,  as  makes  possible  a 
clear  consciousness  of  this  relation.  Non-fulfilment  of  either 
condition  may  cause  non-recognition  of  the  necessity  of  the 
truth.     Let  us  take  cases. 

The  savage  who  cannot  count  the  fingers  on  one  hand. 


THE    INDESTRUCTIBILITY    OF   MATTER.  175 


♦ 


can  frame  no  definite  thouglit  answering  to  the  statement 
that  7  and  5  are  12  ;  still  less  can  lie  frame  tlie  conscious- 
ness tliat  no  other  total  is  possible. 

The  boy  adding  up  figures  inattentively,  says  to  himself 
that  7  and  5  are  11 ;  and  may  repeatedly  bring  out  a  wrong 
result  by  repeatedly  making  this  error. 

Neither  the  non-recognition  of  the  truth  that  7  and  5 
are  12,  which  in  the  savage  results  from  undeveloped  mental 
structure,  nor  the  assertion,  due  to  the  boy^s  careless  mental 
action,  that  they  make  11,  leads  us  to  doubt  the  necessity  of 
the  relation  between  these  two  separately-existing  numbers 
and  the  sum  they  make  when  existing  together.  Nor  does 
failure  from  either  cause  to  apprehend  the  necessity  of  this 
relation,  make  us  hesitate  to  say  that  when  its  terms  are 
distinctly  represented  in  thought,  its  necessity  will  be  seen ; 
and  that,  apart  from  any  multiplied  experiences,  this  neces- 
sity becomes  cognizable  when  structures  and  functions 
are  so  far  developed  that  groups  of  7  and  5  and  12  can  be 
intellectually  grasped. 

Manifestly,  then,  there  is  a  recognition  of  necessary 
truths,  as  such,  which  accompanies  mental  evolution.  Along 
with  acquirement  of  more  complex  faculty  and  more  vivid 
imagination,  there  comes  a  power  of  perceiving  to  be  neces- 
sary truths,  what  were  before  not  recognized  as  truths  at  all. 
And  there  are  ascending  gradations  in  these  i-ecognitions. 
A  boy  who  has  intelligence  enough  to  see  that  things 
which  are  equal  to  the  same  thing  are  equal  to  one  another, 
may  be  unable  to  see  that  ratios  which  are  severally  equal 
to  certaiu  other  ratios  that  are  unequal  to  each  other,  are 
themselves  unequal ;  though  to  a  more-developed  mind  this 
last  axiom  is  no  less  obviously  necessary  than  the  first. 

All  this  which  holds  of  logical  and  mathematical  truths, 
holds,  with  change  of  terms,  of  physical  truths.  There  are 
necessary  truths  in  Physics  for  the  apprehension  of  which, 
also,  a  developed  and  disciplined  intelligence  is  required ; 
and  before  such  intelligence  arises,  not  only  may  there  be 


176  THE   INDESTEUCTIBILITY   OF   MATTER. 

failure  to  apprcliend  fhe  necessity  of  them,  but  there  may 
be  vague  beliefs  in  their  contraries.  Up  to  comparatively- 
recent  times,  all  mankind  were  in  this  state  of  incapacity 
with  respect  to  physical  axioms ;  and  the  mass  of  mankind 
are  so  still.  Various  popular  notions  betray  inability  to 
form  clear  ideas  of  forces  and  their  relations,  or  careless- 
ness in  thinking,  or  both.  Effects  are  expected  without 
causes  of  fit  kinds  ;  or  effects  extremely  disproportionate  to 
causes  are  looked  for ;  or  causes  are  supposed  to  end  without 
effects.*  But  though  many  are  incapable  of  grasping  phy- 
sical axioms,  it  no  more  follows  that  physical  axioms  are 
not  knowable  a  jpriori  by  a  developed  intelligence,  than  it 
follows  that  logical  relations  are  not  necessary,  because  un- 
developed intellects  cannot*  perceive  their  necessity. 

It  is  thus  with  the  notions  which  have  been  current 
respecting  the  creation  and  annihilation  of  Matter.  In  the 
first  place,  there  has  been  an  habitual  confounding  of  two 
radically-different  things — disappearance  of  Matter  from 
that  place-  where  it  was  lately  perceived,  and  passage  of 
Matter  from  existence  into  non-existence.  Only  when  there 
is  reached  a  power  of  discrimination  beyond  that  possessed 
by  the  uncultured,  is  there  an  avoidance  of  the  confusion 
between  vanishing  from  the  range  of  perception,  and 
vanishing  out  of  space  altogether ;  and  until  this  confusion 
is  avoided,  the  belief  that  Matter  can  be  annihilated  readily 
obtains  currency.  In  the  second  place,  the  currency  of  this 
belief  continues  so  long  as  there  is  not  such  power  of  intro- 

*  I  knew  a  lady  who  contended  that  a  dress  folded  up  tightly,  weighed 
more  than  when  loosely  folded  up ;  and  who,  under  this  belief,  had 
her  trunks  made  large  that  she  might  diminish  the  charge  for  freight  ! 
Another  whom  I  know,  ascribes  the  feeling  of  lightness  which  accompanies 
vigour,  to  actual  decrease  of  weight ;  believes  that  by  stepping  gently,  she 
can  press  less  upon  the  ground  ;  and,  when  cross-questioned,  asserts  that, 
if  placed  in  scales,  she  can  make  herself  lighter  by  an  act  of  will  !  Various 
popular  notions  betray  like  states  of  mind — show,  in  the  undisciplined,  such 
inability  to  form  ideas  of  forces  and  their  relations,  or  such  randomness  in 
thinking,  or  both,  as  incapacitates  them  for  grasping  physical  axioms,  and 
makes  them  harbour  numerous  delusions  respecting  physical  actions. 


THE    INDESTRUCTIBILITY    OP   MATTER.  177 

spection  tliat  it  can  be  seen  wliat  happens  when  tlie  attempt 
is  made  to  anniliilate  Matter  in  tliouglit.  But  when,  during 
mental  evolution,  the  vague  ideas  arising  in  a  nervous 
structure  imperfectly  organized,  are  replaced  by  the  clear 
ideas  arising  in  a  definite  nervous  structure;  this  definite 
structure,  moulded  by  experience  into  correspondence  with 
external  phenomena,  makes  necessary  in  thought  the  rela- 
tions answering  to  absolute  uniformities  in  things.  Hence, 
among  others,  the  conception  of  the  Indestructibility  of 
Matter. 

For  careful  self -analysis  shows  this  to  be  a  datum  of 
consciousness.  Conceive  the  space  before  you  to  be  cleared 
of  all  bodies  save  one.  Now  imagine  the  remaining  one  not 
to  be  removed  from  its  place,  but  to  lapse  into  nothing 
while  standing  in  that  place.  You  fail.  The  space  which 
was  solid  you  cannot  conceive  becoming  empty,  save  by 
transfer  of  that  which  made    it  solid.  What 

is  termed  the  ultimate  incompressibility  of  Matter,  is  an 
admitted  law  of  thought.  However  small  the  bulk  to 
which  we  conceive  a  piece  of  matter  reduced,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  conceive  it  reduced  into  nothing.  While  we  can 
represent  to  ourselves  the  parts  of  the  matter  as  approxi- 
mated, we  cannot  represent  to  ourselves  the  quantity  of 
matter  as  made  less.  To  do  this  would  be  to  imagine  some 
of  the  constituent  parts  compressed  into  nothing;  which 
is  no  more  possible  than  to  imagine  compression  of  the 
whole   into   nothing.  Our  inability   to   conceive 

Matter  becoming  non-existent,  is  immediately  consequent 
on  the  nature  of  thought.  Thought  consists  in  the  establish- 
ment of  relations.  There  can  be  no  relation  established, 
and  therefore  no  thought  framed,  when  one  of  the  related 
terms  is  absent  from  consciousness.  Hence  it  is  impossible 
to  think  of  something  becoming  nothing,  for  the  same 
reason  that  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  nothing  becoming 
something — the  reason,  namely,  that  nothing  cannot  become 
an  object  of   consciousness.     The   anmETation   of   Matter 


178  THE   INDESTRUCTIBILITY   OP   MATTER. 

is   iin thinkable  for  tliG  same  reason  tliat   tlie  creation   of 
Matter  is  unthinkable. 

It  must  be  added  tliat  no  experimental  verification  of  tho 
truth  that  Matter  is  indestructible^  is  possible  without  a 
tacit  assumption  of  it.  For  all  such  verification  implies 
weighing,  and  weighing  implies  that  the  matter,  forming 
the  weight  remains  the  same.  In  other  words,  the  proof 
that  certain  matter  dealt  with  in  certain  ways  is  unchanged 
in  quantity,  depends  on  the  assumption  that  other  matter, 
otherwise  dealt  with,  is  unchanged  in  quantity. 

§  54.  That,  however,  which  it  most  concerns  us  here 
to  observe,  is  the  nature  of  the  perceptions  by  which  'the 
permanence  of  Matter  is  perpetually  illustrated  to  us. 
These  perceptions,  under  all  their  forms,  amount  simply  to 
this — that  the  force  which  a  given  quantity  of  matter  exer- 
cises, remains  always  the  same.  This  is  the  proof  on  which 
common  sense  and  exact  science  alike  rely.  When, 

for  example,  an  object  known  to  have  existed  years  since  is 
said  to  exist  still,  by  one  who  yesterday  saw  it,  his  assertion 
amounts  to  this — that  an  object  which  in  past  time 
wrought  on  his  consciousness  a  certain  group  of  changes, 
still  exists,  because  a  like  group  of  changes  has  been  again 
wrought  on  his  consciousness  :  the  continuance  of  the  jpower 
thus  to  impress  him,  he  holds  to  prove  the  cojitinuanco  of 
the  object.  Even  more  clearly  do  we  see  that  force  is  our 
ultimate  measure  of  Matter,  in  those  cases  where  the  shape 
of  the  Matter  has  been  changed.  A  piece  of  gold  given  to 
an  artizan  to  be  worked  into  an  ornament,  and  which  when 
brought  back  appears  to  be  less,  is  placed  in  the  scales ; 
and  if  it  balances  a  much  smaller  weight  than  it  did  in  its 
rough  state,  we  infer  that  much  has  been  lost  either  in 
manipulation  or  by  direct  abstraction.  Here  the  obvious 
postulate  is,  that  the  quantity  of  Matter  is  finally  de- 
terminable by  the  quantity  of  gravitative  force  it  mani- 
fests. And  this  is  the  kind  of  evidence  on  which 


THE    INDESTKUCTIBILITY    OF   MATTER.  179 

Science  bases  its  alleged  induction  tliat  Matter"  is  in- 
destructible.* Whenever  a  piece  of  substance  lately  visible 
and  tangible,  bas  been  reduced  to  an  invisible,  intangible 
state,  but  is  proved  by  tbe  weight  of  tbe  gas  into  wbich. 
it  bas  been  transformed  to  be  still  existing;  tbe  assump- 
tion is  tbat,  though  otherwise  insensible  to  us",  the  amount 
of  matter  is  the  same  if  it  still  tends  towards  the  Earth 
with  the  same  force.  Similarly,  every  case  in  which  the 
weight  of  an  element  present  in  combination  is  inferred 
from  the  known  weight  of  another  element  which  it 
neutralizes,  is  a  case  in  which  the  quantity  of  matter  is 
expressed  in  terms  of  the  quantity  of  chemical  force  it 
exerts ;  and  in  which  this  specific  chemical  force  is  assumed 
to  be  the  correlative  of  a  specific  gravitative  force. 

Thus,  then,  by  the  Indestructibility  of  Matter,  we  really 
mean  the  indestructibility  of  the  force  with  which  Matter 
affects  us.  As  we  become  conscious  of  Matter  only  through 
that  resistance  which  it  opposes  to  our  muscular  energy,  so 
do  we  become  conscious  of  the  permanence  of  Matter  only 
through  the  permanence  of  this  resistance;  either  as  im- 
mediately or  as  mediately  proved  to  us.  And  this  truth  is 
made  manifest  not  only  by  analysis  of  the  a  'posteriori 
cognition,  but  equally  so  by  analysis  of  the  a  jpriori  one.* 

*  Lest  lie  should  not  have  observed  it,  the  reader  must  he  warned  that  the 
terms  "  d  priori  truth  "  and  "  necessary  truth,"  as  used  m  this  work,  are  to  he 
interpreted  not  in  the  old  sense,  as  implying  cognitions  wholly  inde})cndeut 
of  experiences,  hut  as  implying  cognitions  that  have  been  rendered  organic 
by  immense  accumulations  of  experiences,  received  partly  by  the  individual, 
but  mainly  by  all  ancestral  individuals  whose  nervous  systems  he  inherits.  On 
referring  to  the  Principles  of  Psychology  (§§  426 — 433),  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  warrant  alleged  for  one  of  these  irreversible  ultimate  convictions  is  that, 
on  the  hypothesis  of  Evolution,  it  represents  an  immeasurably-greater  accumu- 
lation of  experiences  than  can  be  acq^uired  by  any  single  individual. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    CONTINUITY    OF   MOTION. 

§  55.  Another  general  trutli  of  tlie  same  order  witH  the 
foregoing,  must  here  be  specified.  Like  the  Indestructibility 
of  Matter,  the  Continuity  of  Motion,  or,  more  strictly,  of 
that  something  which  has  Motion  for  one  of  its  sensible 
forms,  is  a  proposition  on  the  truth  of  which  depends  the 
possibility  of  exact  Science,  and  therefore  of  a  Philosophy 
which  unifies  the  results  of  exact  Science.  Motions,  visible 
and"  invisible,  of  masses  and  of  molecules,  form  the  larger 
half  of  the  phenomena  to  be  interpreted;  and  if  such 
motions  might  either  proceed  from  nothing  or  lapse  into 
nothing,  there  could  be  no  scientific  interpretation  of  them. 

This  second  fundamental  truth,  like  the  first,  is  by  no 
means  self-evident  to  primitive  men  or  to  the  uncultured 
among  ourselves.  Contrariwise,  to  undeveloped  minds  the 
opposite  seems  self-evident.  The  facts  that  a  stone  thrown 
up  soon  loses  its  ascending  motion,  and  that  after  the  blow 
its  fall  gives  to  the  Earth,  it  remains  quiescent,  apparently 
•prove  that  the  principle  of  Activity*  which  the  stone  mani- 
fested may  disappear  absolutely.  Accepting,  without  criti- 
cism, the  dicta  of  unaided  perception,  to  the  effect  that 
adjacent  objects  put  in  motion  soon  return  to  rest,  all  men 
once  believed,  and  most  believe  still,  that  motion  can  puss 
into  nothing;  and  ordinarily  does  so  pass.  But 

the  establishment  of  certain  facts  having  an  opposite  impli- 

*  Throughout  this  Chapter  I  use  this  phrase,  not  with  any  metaphysical 
meaning,  but  merely  to  avoid  foregone  conclusions. 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF   MOTION.  181 

cation,  led  to  inquiries  whicli  have  gradually  proved  these 
appearances  to  be  illusive.  Tlie  discovery  that  the  planets 
revolve  round  the  Sun  with  undiminishing  speed,  raised 
the  suspicion  that  a  moving  body,  when  not  interfered  with, 
will  go  on  for  ever  without  change  of  velocity ;  and  sug- 
gested the  question  whether  bodies  which  lose  their  motion, 
do  not  at  the  same  time  communicate  as  much  motion  to 
other  bodies.  It  was  a  familiar  fact  that  a  stone  would 
glide  further  over  a  smooth  surface,  such  as  ice,  presenting 
no  small  objects  to  which  it  could  part  with  its  motion  by 
collision,  than  over  a  surface  strewn  with  such  small  objects ; 
and  that  a  projectile  would  travel  a  far  greater  distance 
through  a  rare  medium  like  air,  than  through  a  dense 
medium  like  water.  Thus  the  primitive  notion  that  moving 
bodies  had  an  inherent  tendency  to  lose  their  motion  and 
finally  stop — a  notion  of  which  the  Greeks  did  not  get  rid, 
but  which  lasted  till  the  time  of  Gahleo — ^began  to  give  way. 
It  was  further  shaken  by  such  experiments  as  those  of 
Hooke,  which  proved  that  the  spinning  of  a  top  continues 
long  in  proportion  as  it  is  prevented  from  communicating 
motion  to  surrounding  matter. 

To  explain  specifically  how  modern  physicists  interpret 
all  disappearances  and  diminutions  of  visible  motion,  would 
require  more  knowledge  than  I  possess  and  more  space  than 
I  can  spare.  Here  it  must  suflB.ce  to  state,  generally,  that 
the  molar  motion  which  disappears  when  a  bell  is  struck  by 
its  clapper,  reappears  in  the  belFs  vibrations  and  in  the 
waves  of  air  they  produce ;  that  when  a  moving  mass  is 
stopped  by  coming  against  a  mass  that  is  immoveable,  the 
motion  which  does  not  reappear  in  sound  reappears  as  mole- 
cular motion  ;  and  that,  similarly,  when  bodies  rub  against 
one  another,  the  motion  lost  by  friction  is  gained  in  the 
motion  of  molecules.  But  one  aspect  of  this  general  truth, 
as  it  is  displayed  to  us  in  the  motions  of  masses,  we  must 
carefully  contemplate;  for  otherwise  the  doctrine  of  the 
Continuity  of  Motion  will  be  entirely  misapprehended. 


182  THE   CONTINUITY   OF   MOTION. 

§  5G.  As  expressed  by  Newton,  tke  first  law  of  motion  is 
tliat  "  every  body  must  persevere  in  its  state  of  rest,  or  of 
uniform  motion  in  a  straight  line,  unless  it  be  compelled  to 
cbange  tbat  state  by  forces  impressed  upon  it." 

With  this  truth  may  be  associated  the  truth  that  a  body 
describing  a  circular  orbit  round  a  centre  which  detains  it 
by  a  tractive  force,  moves  in  that  orbit  with  undiminished 
velocity. 

The  first  of  these  abstract  truths  is  never  realized  in  the 
concrete,  and  the  second  of  them  is  but  approximately 
realized.  Uniform  motion  in  a  straight  line,  implies  the 
absence  of  a  resisting  medium;  and  it  further  implies  the 
absence  of  forces,  gravitative  or  other,  exercised  by  neigh- 
bouring masses  :  conditions  never  fulfilled.  So,  too,  the 
maintenance  of  a  circular  orbit  by  any  celestial  body,  im- 
plies both  that  there  are  no  perturbing  bodies,  and  that  there 
is  a  certain  exact  adjustment  between  its  velocity  and  the 
tractive  "force  of  its  primary :  neither  requirement  ever 
being  conformed  to.  In  all  actual  orbits,  sensibly  elliptical 
as  they  are,  the  velocity  is  sensibly  variable.  And  along 
with  great  eccentricity  there  goes  great  variation. 

^To  the  case  of  celestial  bodies  which,  moving  in  eccentric 
orbits,  display  at  one  time  little  motion  and  at  another 
much  motion,  may  be  joined  the  case  of  the  pendulum. 
With  speed  now  increasing  and  now  decreasing,  the  pen- 
dulum alternates  between  extremes  at  which  motion  ceases. 

How  shall  we  so  conceive  these  allied  phenomena  as  to 
express  rightly  the  truth  common  to  them  ?  The  first  law 
of  motion,  nowhere  literally  fulfilled,  is  yet,  in  a  sense, 
implied  by  these  facts  which  seem  at  variance  with  it. 
Though  in  a  circular  orbit  the  direction  of  the  motion  is 
continually  being  changed,  yet  the  velocity  remains  un- 
changed. Though  in  an  elliptical  orbit  there  is  now 
acceleration  and  now  retardation,  yet  the  average  speed  is 
constant  through  successive  revolutions.  Though  the  pen- 
dulum comes  to   a  momentary  rest  at  the   end   of   each 


THE   CONTINUITY   OP   MOTION.  183 

swing,  and  tlien  begins  a  reverse  motion ;  jet  tlie  oscilla- 
tion, considered  as  a  whole,  is  continuous  :  friction  and 
atmospheric  resistance  being  absent,  tliis  alternation  of 
states  will  go  on  for  ever. 

What,  then,  do  these  cases  show  us  in  common  ?  That 
which  vision  familiarizes  us  with  in  Motion,  and  that  which 
has  thus  been  made  the  dominant  element  in  our  conception 
of  Motion,  is  not  the  element  of  which  we  can  allege  con- 
tinuity. If  we  regard  Motion  simply  as  change  of  place ; 
then  the  pendulum  shows  us  both  that  the  rate  of  this 
change  may  vary  from  instant  to  instant,  and  that,  ceasing 
at  intervals,  it  may  be  afresh  initiated. 

But  if  what  we  may  call  the  translation-element  in  Motion 
is  not  continuous,  what  is  continuous  ?  If,  watching  like 
Galileo  a  swinging  chandelier,  we  observe,  not  its  iso- 
chronism,  but  the  recurring  reversal  of  its  swing,  we  are 
impressed  with  the  fact  that  though,  at  the  end  of  each 
swing,  the  translation  through  space  ceases,  yet  there  is 
something  which  does  not  cease ;  for  the  translation  recom- 
mences in  the  opposite  direction.  And  on  remembering 
that  when  a  violent  push  was  given  to  the  chandelier  it 
described  a  larger  arc,  and  was  a  longer  time  before  the 
resistance  of  the  air  destroyed  its  oscillations,  we  are 
shown  that  what  continues  to  exist  during  these  oscilla- 
tions is  some  correlative  of  the  muscular  effort  which  put 
the  chandelier  in  motion.  The  truth  forced  on  our  attention 
by  these  facts  and  inferences,  is  that  translation  through 
space  is  not  itself  an  existence  ;  and  that  hence  the  cessation 
of  Motion,  considered  simply  as  translation,  is  not  the  cessa- 
tion of  an  existence,  but  is  the  cessation  of  a  certain  sign  of 
an  existence — a  sign  occurring  under  certain  conditions. 

Still  there  remains  a  difficulty.  If  that  element  in  the 
chandelier's  motion  of  which  alone  we  can  allege  continuity, 
is  the  correlative  of  the  muscular  effort  which  moved  the 
chandelier,  what  becomes  of  this  element  at  either  extreme 
of  the  oscillation  ?     Arrest  the  chandelier  in  the  middle  of 


184  THE   CONTINUITY   OF   MOTION. 

its  swing,  and  it  gives  a  "blow  to  tlie  hand — exhibits  some 
principle  of  activity  such  as  muscular  effort  can  give.  But 
touch  it  at  either  turning  point,  and  it  displays  no  such 
principle  of  activity.  This  has  disappeared  just  as  much 
as  the  translation  through  space  has  disappeared.  How, 
then,  can  it  be  alleged  that  though  the  Motion  through 
space  is  not  continuous,  the  principle  of  activity  implied 
by  the  Motion  is  continuous  ? 

Unquestionably  the  facts  show  that  the  principle  of 
activity  continues  to  exist  under  some  form.  When  not 
perceptible  it  must  be  latent.  How  is  it  latent  ?  A  clue 
to  the  answer  is  gained  on  observing  that  though  the 
chandelier  when  seized  at  the  turning  point  of  its  swing, 
gives  no  impact  in  the  direction  of  its  late  movement,  it 
forthwith  begins  to  pull  in  the  opposite  direction;  and 
on  observing,  further,  that  its  pull  is  great  when  the 
swing  has  been  made  extensive  by  a  violent  push.  Hence 
the  loss  of  visible  activity  at  the  highest  point  of  the 
upward  motion,  is  accompanied  by  the  production  of  an 
invisible  activity  which  generates  the  subsequent  motion 
downwards.  To  conceive  this  latent  activity  gained  as 
an  existence  equal  to  the  perceptible  activity  lost,  is  not 
easy ;  but  we  may  help  ourselves  so  to  conceive  it  by  con- 
sidering cases  of  another  class. 

§  57.  When  one  who  pushes  against  a  door  that  has  stuck 
fast,  produces  by  great  effort  no  motion,  but  eventually  by 
a  little  greater  effort  bursts  the  door  open,  swinging  it  back 
against  the  wall  and  tumbling  headlong  into  the  room;  he 
has  evidence  that  a  certain  muscular  strain  which  did  not 
produce  translation  of  matter  through  space,  was  yet  equiva- 
lent to  a  certain  amount  of  such  translation.  Again,  when 
a  railway-porter  gradually  stops  a  detached  carriage  by 
pulling  at  the  buffer,  he  shows  us  that  (supposing  friction, 
etc.,  absent)  the  slowly-diminished  motion  of  the  carriage 
over  a  certain  space,  is  the  equivalent  of  the  constant  back- 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF   MOTION.  185 

TTard  strain  put  upon  tlie  carriage  wliile  it  is  travelling 
tlirough  that  space.  Carrying  with,  us  the  conception 
thus  reached,  we  will  now  consider  a  case  which  makes 
it  more  definite. 

When  used  as  a  plaything  by  boys,  a  ball  fastened  to 
the  end  of  an  india-rubber  string  yields  a  clear  idea  of 
the  correlation  between  perceptible  activity  and  latent  ac- 
tivity. If,  retaining  one  end  of  the  string,  a  boy  throws  the 
ball  from  him  horizontally,  its  motion  is  resisted  by  the 
increasing  strain  on  the  string;  and  the  string,  stretched 
more  and  more  as  the  ball  recedes,  presently  brings  it  to 
rest.  Wbere  now  exists  tbe  principle  of  activity  which 
the  moving  ball  displayed  ?  It  exists  in  the  strained  thread 
of  india-rubber.  Under  what  form  of  changed  mole- 
cular state  it  exists  we  need  not  ask.  It  suffices  that  the 
string  is  the  seat  of  a  tension  generated  by  the  motion  of  the 
ball,  and  equivalent  to  it.  When  the  ball  has  been  arrested, 
the  stretched  string  begins. to  generate  in  it  an  opposite  mo- 
tion ;  and  continues  to  accelerate  that  motion  until  the  ball 
comes  back  to  the  point  at  which,  the  stretching  of  the 
string  commenced — ^a  point  at  which,  but  for  loss  by  atmos- 
pheric resistance  and  molecular  redistribution,  its  velocity 
would  be  equal  to  the  original  velocity.  Here  the  truth,  that 
the  principle  of  activity,  alternating  between  visible  and 
invisible  modes,  does  not  cease  to  exist  when  the  translation 
through,  space  ceases  to  exist,  is  readily  comprehensible ; 
and  it  becomes  easy  to  understand  the  corollary  that  at  each 
point  in  the  path  of  the  ball,  the  quantity  of  its  perceptible 
activity,  plus  the  quantity  which  is  latent  in  the  stretched 
string,  yield  a  constant  sum. 

Aided  by  this  illustration  we  can,  in  a  general  way,  con- 
ceive what  happens  between  bodies  connected  with  one 
another,  not  by  a  stretched  string,  but  by  a  traction  exer- 
cised through  what  SQems  empty  space.  It  matters  not 
to  our  general  conception  that  the  intensity  of  this  trac- 
tion varies   in    a    totally-different   manner :    decreasing  as 


186  THE   CONTINUITY   OF   MOTION. 

the  square  of  the  distance  increases,  but  being  prac- 
tically constant  for  terrestrial  distances.  These  differences 
being  recognized,  there  is  nevertheless  to  be  recognized 
a  truth  common  to  both  cases.  The  weight  of  some- 
thing held  in  the  hand  shows  that  there  exists  between 
one  body  in  space  and  another,  a  strain :  this  downward 
pull,  ascribed  to  gravity,  affects  the  hand  as  it  might  be 
affected  by  a  stretched  elastic  string.  Hence,  when  a  body 
projected  upwards  and  gradually  retarded  by  gravity,  finally 
stops,  we  must  regard  the  principle  of  activity  manifested 
during  its  upward  motion  but  disappearing  at  its  turning- 
point,  as  having  become  latent  in  the  strain  between  it  and 
the  Earth — ^^a  strain  of  which  the  quantity  is  to  be  con- 
ceived as  the  product  of  its  intensity  and  the  distance 
through  which  it  acts.  Carrying  a  step  further  our  illus- 
tration of  the  stretched  string,  will  elucidate  this.  To 
simulate  the  action  of  gravity  at  terrestrial  distances,  let 
us  imagine  that  when  the  attached  moving  body  has 
stretched  the  elastic  string  to  its  limit,  say  at  the  distance 
of  ten  feet,  a  second  like  string  could  instantly  be  tied  to 
the  end  of  the  first  and  to  the  body,  which,  continuing 
its  course,  stretched  this  second  string  to  an  equal  length, 
and  so  on  with  a  succession  of  such  strings,  till  the  body 
was  arrested.  Then,  manifestly,  the  quantity  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  activity  which  the  moving  body  had  displayed, 
but  which  has  now  become  latent  in  the  series  of  stretched 
strings,  is  measured  by  the  number  of  such  strings  simi- 
larly stretched— the  number  of  feet  through  which  this 
constant  strain  has  been  encountered,  and  over  wJdch  it 
still  extends.  Now  though  we  cannot  conceive  the  tractive 
force  of  gravity  to  be  exercised  in  a  like  way — though 
the  gravitative  action,  utterly  unknown  in  nature,  is  pro- 
bably a  resultant  of  actions  pervading  the  ethereal  medium; 
yet  the  above  analogy  suggests  the  belief  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  activity  in  a  moving  body  arrested  by  gravity, 
has  not  ceased  to  exist,  but  has  become  so  much  imper- 


THE    CONTINUITY   OF   MOTION.  187 

•ceptible  or  latent  activity  in  tlie  medium  occupying  space, 
and  that  wlien  tlie  body  falls,  this  is  re-transformed  into 
its  equivalent  of  perceptible  activity.  If  we  conceive  tlie 
process  at  all,  we  must  conceive  it  tbus  :  otherwise,  we  have 
to  conceive  that  a  power  is  changed  into  a  space-relation, 
and  this  is  inconceivable. 

Here,  then,  is  the  solution  of  the  difficulty.  The  space- 
element  of  Motion  is  not  in  itself  a  thing.  Change  of  position 
is  not  an  existence,  but  the  manifestation  of  an  existence. 
This  existence  may  cease  to  display  itself  as  translation ;  but 
it  can  do  so  only  by  displaying  itself  as  strain.  And  this 
principle  of  activity,  now  shown  by  translation,  now  by 
strain,  and  often  by  the  two  together,  is  alone  that  which 
in  Motion  we  can  call  continuous. 

§  58.  What  is  this  principle  of  activity?  Vision  gives 
us  no  idea  of  it.  If  by  a  mirror  we  cast  the  image  of 
an  illuminated  object  on  to  a  dark  wall,  and  then  suddenly 
changing  the  attitude  of  the  mirror,  make  the  reflected 
image  pass  from  side  to  side,  the  image,  if  recognized  as 
such,  does  not  raise  the  thought  that  there  is  present  in  it 
a  principle  of  activity.  Before  we  can  conceive  the  presence 
of  this,  we  must  regard  the  impression  yielded  thi'ough 
our  eyes  as  symbolizing  something  tangible — something 
which  offers  resistance.  Hence  the  principle  of  activity 
as  known  by  sight,  is  inferential :  visible  translation  sug- 
gests by  association  the  presence  of  a  principle  of  activity 
which  would  be  appreciable  by  our  skin  and  muscles  did 
we  lay  hold  of  the  body.  Evidently,  then,  this  principle 
of  activity  which  Motion  shows  us,  is  the  objective  corre- 
late of  our  subjective  sense  of  effort.  By  pushing  and  pull- 
ing, we  get  feelings  which,  generalized  and  abstracted,  yield 
our  ideas  of  resistance  and  tension.  Now  displayed  by 
changing  position  and  now  by  unchanging  strain,  this  prin- 
ciple of  activity  is  ultimately  conceived  by  us  under  the 
single  form  of  its  equivalent  muscular  effort.     So  that  the 


188  THE    CONTINUITY   OP   MOTION. 

continuity  of  Motion,  as  well  as  tlie  indestructibility  of 
Matter,  is  really  known  to  us  in  terms  of  Force. 

§  59.  And  now  we  reach.  tHe  essential  truth  to  bo  here 
especially  noted.  All  proofs  of  the  Continuity  of  Motion 
involve  the  postulate  that  the  quantity  of  force  is  constant. 
Observe  what  results  when  we  analyze  the  reasonings  by 
which  the  Continuity  of  Motion,  as  here  understood,  is  shown. 

A  particular  planet  can  be  identified  only  by  its  constant 
power  to  affect  our  visual  organs  in  a  special  way.  Fur- 
ther, such  planet  has  not  been  seen  to  move  by  the  astro- 
nomical observer ;  but  its  motion  is  inferred  from  a  com- 
parison of  its  present  position  with  the  position  it  before 
occupied.  If  rigorously  examined,  this  comparison  proves 
to  be  a  comparison  between  the  different  impressions  pro- 
duced on  him  by  the  different  adjustments  of  his  observing 
instruments.  And,  manifestly,  the  validity  of  all  the  in- 
ferences drawn  from  these  likenesses  and  unlikenesses, 
depends  on  the  truth  of  the  assumption  that  these  masses 
of  matter,  celestial  and  terrestrial,  will  continue  to  affect 
his  senses  in  exactly  the  same  ways  under  the  same  con- 
ditions; and  that  no  changes  in  their  powers  of  affecting 
him  can  have  arisen  without  force  having  been  expended 
in  working  those  changes.  Going  a  step  further 

back,  it  turns  out  that  difference  in  the  adjustment  of  his 
observing  instrument,  and  by  implication  in  the  planet,  is 
meaningless  until  shown  to  correspond  with  a  certain  calcu- 
lated position  which  the  planet  must  occupy,  supposing  that 
no  motion  has  been  lost.  And  if,  finally,  we  examine  the 
implied  calculation,  we  find  •  that  it  takes  into  account 
those  accelerations  and  retardations  which  ellipticity  of  the 
orbit  involves,  as  well  as  those  variations  of  velocity  caused 
by  adjacent  planets — ^we  find,  that  is,  that  the  motion  is 
concluded  to  be  indestructible  not  from  the  uniform  velo- 
city of  the  planet,  but  from  the  constant  quantity  of  motion 
exhibited  when  allowance  is  made  for  the  motion  communi- 


THE   CONTINDITY   OP   MOTION.  189 

cated  toj  or  received  from,  other  celestial  bodies.  And 
when  we  ask  how  this  commuiiicated  motion  is  estimated, 
we  discover  that  the  estimate  is  based  on  certain  laws  of 
force ;  which  laws,  one  and  all,  embody  the  postulate  that 
force  cannot  be  destroyed.  Without  the  axiom  that  action 
and  re-action  are  equal  and  opposite,  astronomy  could  not 
make  its  exact  predictions. 

Similarly  with  the  a  priori  conclusion  that  Motion  is  con- 
tinuous. That  which  defies  suppression  in  thought,  is  really 
the  force  which  the  motion  indicates.  We  can  imagine 
retardation  to  result  from  the  action  of  external  bodies. 
But  to  imagine  this,  is  not  possible  without  imagining 
abstraction  of  the  force  implied  by  the  motion.  We  are 
obliged  to  conceive  this  force  as  impressed  in  the  shape  of 
reaction  on  the  bodies  that  cause  the  arrest.  And  the 
motion  communicated  to  them,  we  are  compelled  to  re- 
gard, not  as  directly  communicated,  but  as  a  product  of 
the  communicated  force.  We  can  mentally  diminish  the 
velocity  or  space-element  of  motion,  by  diffusing  the  mo- 
mentum or  force-element  over  a  larger  mass  of  matter; 
but  the  quantity  of  this  force-element,  which  we  regard  as 
the  cause  of  the  motion,  is  unchangeable  in  thought.* 

*  It  is  needful  to  state  that  this  exposition  differs  in  its  point  of  view  from 
the  expositions  ordinarily  given  ;  and  that  some  of  the  words  employed,  such 
as  strain^  have  somewhat  larger  implications.  Unable  to  learn  anything 
about  the  nature  of  Force,  physicists  have,  of  late  years,  formulated  ulti- 
mate physical  truths  in  such  ways  as  often  tacitly  to  exclude  the  conscious- 
ness of  Force  :  conceiving  cause,  as  Hume  proposed,  in  terms  of  antecedence 
and  sequence  only.  **  Potential  energy,"  for  example,  is  defined  as  consti- 
tuted by  such  relations  in  space  as  permit  masses  to  generate  in  one  another 
certain  motions,  but  as  being  in  itself  nothing.  While  this  mode  of  con- 
ceiving the  phenomena  sufl&ces  for  physical  inquiries,  it  does  not  suffice  for 
the  purposes  of  philosophy.  After  referring  to  the  Principles  of  Psychology  ^ 
§§  347 — 350,  the  reader  will  understand  what  I  mean  by  saying  that  since 
our  ideas  of  Body,  Space,  Motion,  are  derived  from  our  ideas  of  muscular 
tension,  which  are  the  ultimate  symbols  into  which  all  our  other  mental 
symbols  are  interpretable,  to  formulate  phenomena  in  the  proximate  terms  of 
Body,  Space,  Motion,  while  discharging  from  the  concepts  the  consciousness 
of  Force,  is  to  acknowledge  the  superstructure  while  ignoring  the  foundation. 


CHAPTER  YI. 

THE    PERSISTENCE    OF   FORCE.* 

§  60.  In  tlie  foregoing  two  chapters,  manifestations  of 
force  of  two  f  andamentally-diif erent  classes  have  been  dealt 
with — ^the  force  by  which  matter  demonstrates  itself  to  us 
as  existing,  and  the  force  by  which  it  demonstrates  itself 
to  us  as  acting. 

Body  is  distingaishable  from  space  by  its  power  of  affect- 
ing our  senses,  and,  in  the  last  resort,  by  its  opposition  to 
our  efforts.  We  can  conceive  of  body  only  by  joining  in 
thought  extension  and  resistance  :  take  away  resistance,  and 
there  remains  only  space.  In  what  way  this  force  which 
produces  space-occupancy  is  •  conditioned  we  do  not  know. 

*  Some  explanation  of  this  title  seems  needful.  In  the  text  itself  are  given 
the  reasons  for  using  the  word  "force"  instead  of  the  word  "energy;" 
and  here  I  must  say  why  I  think  "persistence  "  preferable  to  "  conserva- 
tion." Some  two  years  ago  (this  was  written  in  1861)  I  expressed  to  my 
friend  Prof.  Huxley,  ray  dissatisfaction  with  the  (then)  current  expression — 
*•  Conservation  of  Force  :  "  assigning  as  reasons,  first,  that  the  word  "con- 
servation "  implies  a  conserver  and  an  act  of  conserving  ;  and,  second,  that 
it  does  not  imply  the  existence  of  the  force  before  the  particular  manifesta- 
tion of  it  which  is  contemplated.  And  I  may  now  addj  as  a  further  fault, 
the  tacit  assumption  that,  without  some  act  of  conservation,  force  would 
disappear.  All  these  implications  are  at  variance  with  the  conception  to  bo 
conveyed.  In  place  of  "conservation"  Prof.  Htixley  suggested  persiste7ice. 
This  meets  most  of  the  objections  ;  and  though  it  may  be  urged  against  it 
that  it  does  not  directly  imply  pre-existence  of  the  force  at  any  time 
manifested,  yet  no  other  word  less  faulty  in  this  respect  can  be  found.  In 
the  absence  of  a  word  specially  coined  for  the  purpose,  it  seems  the  best  j 
and  as  such  I  adopt  it. 


THE   PERSISTENCE   OF   FORCE.  191 

The  mode  of  force  wliicli  is  revealed  to  us  only  by  opposi- 
tion to  our  own  powers,  may  be  in  essence  tlie  same  with 
the  mode  of  force  which  reveals  itself  by  the  changes  it 
initiates  in  our  consciousness.  That  the  space  a  body 
occupies  is  in  part  determined  by  the  degree  of  that  activity 
possessed  by  its  molecules  which  we  call  heat,  is  a  familiar 
truth.  Moreover,  we  know  that  such  molecular  re -arrange- 
ment as  occurs  in  the  change  of  water  into  ice,  is  accom- 
panied by  an  evolution  of  force  which  may  burst  the 
containing  vessel  and  give  motion  to  the  fragments. 
Nevertheless,  the  forms  of  our  experience  oblige  us  to 
distinguish  between  two  modes  of  force ;  the  one  not  a 
worker  of  change  and  the  other  a  worker  of  change,  actual 
or  potential.  The  first  of  these — the  space-occupying  kind 
of  force — ^has  no  specific  name. 

For  the  second  kind  of  force,  distinguishable  as  that  by 
which  change  is  either  being  caused  or  will  be  caused  if 
counterbalancing  forces  are  overcome,  the  specific  name 
now  accepted  is  "  Energy.^'  That  which  in  the  last  chapter 
was  spoken  of  as  perceptible  activity,  is  called  by  physicists, 
'^  actual  energy  ^' ;  and  that  which  was  called  latent  activity, 
is  called  "  potential  energy.^'  "While  including  the  mode 
of  activity  shown  in  molar  motion.  Energy  includes  also 
the  several  modes  of  activity  into  which  molar  motion  is 
transformable — ^heat,  light,  etc.  It  is  the  common  name  for 
the  power  shovni  alike  in  the  movements  of  masses  and 
in  the  movements  of  molecules.  To  our  perceptions  this 
second  kind  of  force  differs  from  the  first  kind  as  being 
not  intrinsic  but  extrinsic. 

In  aggregated  matter  as  presented  to  sight  and  touch, 
this  antithesis  is,  as  above  implied,  much  obscured.  Espe- 
cially in  a  compound  substance,  both  the  potential  energy- 
locked  up  in  the  chemically-combined  molecules,  and  the 
actual  energy  made  perceptible  to  us  as  heat,  compljcate 
the  manifestations  of  intrinsic  force  by  the  manifestations 
of  extrinsic  force.     But  the  antithesis  here  partially  hidden, 


192 


THE  PERSISTENCE   OF  EOECE. 


is  clearly  seen  on  reducing  tlie  data  to  their  lowest  terms 
— a  unit  of  matter,  or  atom,  and  its  motion.  The  force  by 
wMcli  it  exists  is  passive  hut  independent ;  wliile  tlie  force 
by  wMcli  it  moves  is  active  hut  dejpendent  on  its  past 
and  present  relations  to  otter  atoms.  These  two  cannot 
be  identified  in  our  thoughts.  For  as  it  is  impossible  to 
think  of  motion  without  something  that  moves ;  so  it  is 
impossible  to  think  of  energy  without  something  possess- 
ing the  energy. 

While  recognizing  this  fundamental  distinction  between 
that  intrinsic  force  by  which  body  manifests  itself  as 
occupying  space,  and  that  extrinsic  force  distinguished  as 
energy ;  I  here  treat  of  them  together  as  being  alike  per- 
sistent. And  I  thus  treat  of  them  together  partly  for  the 
reason  that,  in  our  consciousness  of  them,  there  is  the  same 
essential  element.  The  sense  of  effort  is  our  subjective 
symbol  for  objective  force  in  general,  passive  and  active. 
Power  of  neutralizing  that  which  we  know  as  our  own 
muscular  strain,  is  the  ultimate  element  in  our  idea  of  body 
as  distinguished  from  space ;  and  any  energy  which  we  can 
give  to  body,  or  receive  from  it,  is  thought  of  as  equal  to  a 
certain  amount  of  muscular  strain.  The  two  conscious- 
nesses differ  essentially  in  this,  that  the  feeling  of  effort 
.common  to  the  two  is  in  the  last  case  joined  with  conscious- 
ness of  change  of  position,  but  in  the  first  case  is  not.* 

There  is,  however,  a  further  and  more  important  reason 

*  In  respect  to  the  fundamental  distinction  here  made  between  the  space- 
occupying  kind  of  force,  and  the  kind  of  force  shown  by  various  modes  of 
activity,  I  am,  as  in  the  last  chapter,  at  issue  with  some  of  my  scientific 
friends.  They  do  not  admit  that  the  conception  of  force  is  involved  in  the 
conception  of  a  unit  of  matter.  From  the  psychological  point  of  view,  how- 
ever. Matter,  in  all  its  properties,  is  the  unknown  cause  of  the  sensations  it 
produces  in  us ;  of  which  the  one  which  remains  when  all  the  others  are 
absent,  is  resistance  to  our  efforts— a  resistance  we  are  obliged  to  symbolizt 
as  the  equivalent  of  the  muscular  force  it  opposes.  In  imagining  a  unit  oi 
matter  we  may  not  ignore  this  symbol,  by  which  alone  a  unit  of  matter  car 
be  figured  in  thought  as  an  existence.  It  is  not  allowable  to  speak  as 
though  there  remained  a  conception  of  an  existence  when  that  conception 


THE    PERSISTENCE   OF   FORCE.  192a 

for  here  dealing  with  the  truth  that  Force  under  each  of 
these  forms  persists.     We  have  to  examine  its  warrant. 

§  61.  At  the  risk  of  trying  the  reader's  patience,  we  must 
reconsider  the  reasoning  through  which  the  indestructibility 
of  Matter  and  the  continuity  of  Motion  are  established,  that 
we  may  see  how  impossible  it  is  to  arrive  by  parallel 
reasoning  at  the  Persistence  of  Force. 

In  all  three  cases  the  question  is  one  of  quantity  : — does 
the  Matter,  or  Motion,  or  Force,  ever  diminish  in  quantity  ? 
Quantitative  science  implies  measurement;  and  measure- 
ment implies  a  unit  of  measure.  The  units  of  measure 
from  which  all  others  of  any  exactness  are  derived,  are  units 
of  linear  extension.  Our  units  of  linear. extension  are  the 
lengths  of  masses  of  matter,  or  the  spaces  between  marks 
made  on  the  masses.;  and  we  assume  these  lengths,  or  these 
spaces  between  marks,  to  remain  unchanged  while  the 
temperature  is  unchanged.  From  the  standard-measure 
preserved  at  Westminster,  are  derived  the  measures  for 
trigonometrical  surveys,  for  geodesy,  the  measurement  of 
terrestrial  arcs,  and  the  calculations  of  astronomical  dis- 
tances, dimensions,  etc.,  and  therefore  for  Astronomy  at 
large.  Were  these  units  of  length,  original  and  derived, 
irregularly  variable,  there  could  be  no  celestial  dynamics ; 
nor  any  of  that  verification  yielded  by  it  of  the  constancy 
of  the '  celestial  masses  or  of  theii*  energies.  Hence,  per- 
sistence of  the  space-occupying  species  of  force  cannot 
be  proved;  for  the  reason  that  it  is  tacitly  assumed  in 
every  experiment  or  observation  by  which  it  is  proposed 
to  prove  it.  The  like  holds  of  the  force  distin- 

guished as  energy.  The  endeavour  to  establish  this  by 
measurement,  takes  for  granted  both  the  persistence  of  the 

has  been  eviscerated — deprived  of  the  element  of  thought  by  which  it  i. 
distinguished  from  empty  space.  Divest  the  conceived  unit  of  matter  of  the 
objective  correlate  to  our  subjective  sense  of  effort,  and  the  entire  fabric  of 
physical  conceptions  disappeai'S. 


1926  THE    PERSISTENCE    OF    FOECE. 

intrinsic  force  by  wLidi  body  manifests  itself  as  existing 
and  the  persistence  of  the  extrinsic  force  by  which 
body  acts.  For  it  is  from  these  equal  units  of  linear 
extension,  through  the  medium  of  the  equal-armed 
lever  or  scales,  that  we  derive  our  equal  units  of  weight, 
or  gravitative  force;  and  only  by  means  of  these  can  we 
make  those  quantitative  comparisons  by  which  the  truths  of 
exact  science  are*  reached.  Throughout  the  investigations 
leading  the  chemist  to  the  conclusion  that  of  the  carbon 
which  has  disappeared  during  combustion,  no  portion  has 
been  lost,  what  is  his  repeatedly-assigned  proof?  That 
afforded  by  the  scales.  In  what  terms  is  the  verdict  of  the 
scales  given  ?  In  grains — in  units  of  weight — ^in  units  of 
gravitative  force.  And  what  is  the  total  content  of  the 
verdict  ?  That  as  many  units  of  gravitative  force  as  the 
carbon  exhibited  at  first,  it  exhibits  still.  The  validity  of  the 
inference,  then,  depends  entirely  upon  tJie  constancy  of  the 
units  of  force.  If  the  force  with  which  the  portion  of  metal 
called  a  grain -weight,  tends  towards  the  Earth,  has  varied, 
the  inference  that  matter  is  indestructible  is  vicious. 
Everything  turns  on  the  truth  of  the  assumption  that  the 
gravitation  of  the  weights  is  persistent;  and  of  this  no 
proof  is  assigned,  or  can  be  assigned.  In  the 

reasonings  of  the  astronomer  there  is  a  like  implication; 
from  which  we  may  draw  the  like  conclusion.  No  problem 
in  celestial  physics  can  be  solved  without  the  assumption  of 
some  unit  of  force.  This  unit  need  not  be,  like  a  pound  or 
a  ton,  one  of  which  we  can  take  direct  cognizance.  It  is 
requisite  only  that  the  mutual  attraction  which  some  two  of 
the  bodies  concerned  exercise  at  a  given  distance,  should  be 
taken  as  one ;  so  that  the  other  attractions  with  which  the 
problem  deals,  may  be  expressed  in  terms  of  this  one.  Such 
unit  being  assumed,  the  motions  which  the  respective 
masses  will  generate  in  each  other  in  a  given  time,  are 
calculated ;  and  compounding  these  with  the  motions  they 
already  have,  their  places  at  tlie  end  of  that  time  are  pro- 


THE   PERSISTENCE   QP   FORCE.  192c 

dieted.  Tlie  prediction  is  verified  by  observation.  From 
this,  either  of  two  inferences  may  be  drawn.  Assuming 
the  masses  to  be  unchanged,  their  energies,  actual  and  poten- 
tial, may  be  proved  to  be  undiminished ;  or  assuming  their 
energies  to  be  undiminished,  the  masses  may  be  proved  un- 
changed. But  the  validity  of  one  or  other  inference,  de- 
pends wholly  on  the  truth  of  the  assumption  that  the  unit 
of  force  is  unchanged.  Let  it  be  supposed  that  the  gravi- 
tation of  the  two  bodies  towards  each  other  at  the  given 
distance,  has  varied,  and  the  conclusions  drawn  are  no  longer 
true.  Nor  is  it  only  in  their  concrete  data  that 

the  reasonings  of  terrestrial  and  celestial  physics  assume  the 
Persistence  of  Force.  The  equality  of  action  and  reaction 
is  taken  for  granted  from  beginning  to  end  of  either  argu- 
ment j  and  to  assert  that  action  and  reaction  are  equal 
and  opposite,  is  to  assert  that  Force  is  persistent.  The 
allegation  really  amounts  to  this,  that  there  cannot  be 
an  isolated  force  beginning  and  ending  in  nothing;  but 
that  any  force  manifested,  implies  an  equal  antecedent  force 
from  which  it  is  derived,  and  against  which  it  is  a  reaction. 
We  might  indeed  be  certain,  even  in  the  absence  of  any 
such  analysis  as  the  foregoing,  that  there  must  exist  some 
principle  which,  as  being  the  basis  of  science,  cannot  be 
established  by  science.  All  reasoned-out  conclusions  what- 
ever must  rest  on  some  postulate.  As  before  shown  (§  23), 
we  cannot  go  on  merging  derivative  truths  in  those  wider 
and  wider  truths  from  which  they  are  derived,  without 
reaching  at  last  a  widest  truth  which  can  be  merged  in  no 
other,  or  derived  from  no  other.  And  whoever  contem- 
plates the  relation  in  which  it  stands  to  the  truths  of  science 
in  general,  will  see  that  this  truth  transcending  demonstra- 
tion is  the  Persistence  of  Force. 

§  G2.  But  now  what  is  the  force  of  which  we  predi- 
cate persistence  ?  It  is  not  the  force  we  are  immediately 
conscious  of  in   our  own  muscular  efforts ;    for  this  does 


192d  THE   PEESISTENCE   OP   FORCE. 

not  persist.  As  soon  as  an  ontstretclied  limb  is  relaxed, 
the  sense  of  tension  disappears.  True,  we  assert  tliat  in  tlie 
stone  thrown  or  in  tlie  weight  lifted,  is  exhibited  the  effect 
of  this  muscular  tension ;  and  that  the  force  which  has 
ceased  to  be  present  in  our  consciousness,  exists  elsewhere. 
But  it  does  not  exist  elsewhere  under  any  form  cognizable 
by  us.  In  §  18  we  saw  that  though,  on  raising  an  object 
from  the  ground,  we  are  obliged  to  think  of  its  down- 
ward pull  as  equal  and  opposite  to  our  upward  pull ;  and 
though  it  is  impossible  to  represent  these  as  equal  without 
representing  them  as  like  in  kind  ;  yet,  since  their  likeness 
in  kind  would  imply  in  the  object  a  sensation  of  muscular 
tension,  which  cannot  be  ascribed  to  it,  we  are  compelled  to 
admit  that  force  as  it  exists  out  of  our  consciousness,  is  not 
force  as  we  know  it.  Hence  the  force  of  which  we  assert 
persistence  is  that  Absolute  Force  of  which  we  are  indefi- 
nitely conscious  as  the  necessary  correlate  of  the  force  we 
know.  By  the  Persistence  of  Force,  we  really  mean  the 
persistence  of  some  Cause  which  transcends  our  know- 
ledge and  conception.  In  asserting  it  we  assert  an  Uncon- 
ditioned Reality,  without  beginning  or  end. 

Thus,  quite .  unexpectedly,  we  come  down  once  more  to 
that  ultimate  truth  in  which,  as  we  saw.  Religion  and 
Science  coalesce.  On  examining  the  data  underlying  a 
rational  Theory  of-  Things,  we  find  them  all  at  last  re- 
solvable into  that  datum  without  which  consciousness  was 
shown  to  be  impossible — the  continued  existence  of  an  Un- 
knowable as  the  necessary  correlative  of  the  Knowable. 

The  sole  truth  which  transcends  experience  by  underlying 
it,  is  thus  the  Persistence  of  Force.  This  being  the  basis 
of  experience,  must  be  the  basis  of  any  scientific  organiza- 
tion of  experiences.  To  this  an  ultimate  analysis  brings 
us  down ;  and  on  this  a  rational  synthesis  must  build  up. 


CHAPTER  YIL 

THE   PERSISTENCE   OP   RELATIONS   AMONG  FOKCES. 

§  63.  The  first  deduction  to  be  drawn  from  tlie  ultimate 
universal  truth  that  force  persists,  is  that  the  re- 
lations among  forces  persist.  Supposing  a  given  mani- 
festation of  force,  under  a  given  form  and  given  condi- 
tions, be  either  preceded  by  or  succeeded  by  some  other 
manifestation,  it  must,  in  aU  cases  where  the  form  and 
conditions  are  the  same,  bo  preceded  by  or  succeeded  by 
such  other  manifestation.  Every  antecedent  mode  of  the 
Unknowable  must  have  an  invariable  connexion,  quantitative 
and  qualitative,  with  that  mode  of  the  Unknowable  which 
we  call  its  consequent. 

For  to  say  otherwise  is  to  deny  the  persistence  of  force. 
If  in  any  two  cases  there  is  exact  likeness  not  only  between 
those  most  conspicuous  antecedents  which  we  distinguish 
as  the  causes,  but  also  between  those  accompanying  antece- 
dents which  wo  call  the  conditions,  we  cannot  affirm  that 
the  effects  will  differ,  without  affirming  either  that  some 
force  has  come  into  existence  or  that  some  force  has  ceased 
to  exist.  If  the  cooperative  forces  in  the  one  case  are 
equal  to  those  in  the  other,  each  to  each,  in  distribution  and 
r.inount ;  then  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  product  of 
their  joint  action  in  the  one  case  as  unlike  that  in  the  other, 
without  conceiving  one  or  more  of  the  forces  to  have  in- 
creased or  diminished  in  quantity ;  and  this  is  conceiving 
that  force  is  not  persistent. 
10 


194         THE   PERSISTENCE  OE  RELATIONS  AMONG  FORCES. 

To  impress  the  trutli  liere  enunciated  under  its  most 
abstract  form,  some  illustrations  will  be  desirable. 

§  64.  Let  two  equal  bullets  be  projected  witH  equal 
forces ;  then,  in  equal  times,  equal  distances  must  be  tra- 
velled by  them.  The  assertion  that  one  of  them  will  describe 
an  assigned  space  sooner  than  the  other,  though  their 
initial  momenta  were  alike  and  they  have  been  equally 
resisted  (for  if  they  are  unequally  resisted  the  antecedents 
differ)  is  au  assertion  that  equal  quantities  of  force  have  not 
done  equal  amounts  of  work;  and  this  cannot  be  thought  with- 
out thinking  that  some  force  has  disappeared  into  nothing  or 
arisen  out  of  nothing.  Assume,  further,  that  during 

its  flight,  one  of  them  has  been  drawn  by  the  Earth  a  certain 
number  of  inches  out  of  its  original  line  of  movement ;  then 
the  other,  which  has  moved  the  same  distance  in  the  same 
time,  must  have  fallen  just  as  far  towards  the  Earth. 
No  other  result  can  be  imagined  without  imagining 
that  equal  attractions  acting  for  equal  times,  have  pro- 
duced unequal  effects;  which  involves  the  inconceivable 
proposition  that  some  action  has  been  created  or  anni- 
hilated. Again,  one  of  the  bullets  having  pene- 
trated the  target  to  a  certain  depth,  penetration  by 
the  other  bullet  to  a  smaller  depth,  unless  caused  by 
altered  shape  of  the  bullet  or  greater  local  density  in  the 
target,  cannot  be  mentally  represented.  Such  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  consequents  without  modification  of  the  ante^ 
cedents,  is  thinkable  only  through  the  impossible  thought 
that  something  has  become  nothing  or  nothing  has  become 
something. 

It  is  thus  not  with  sequences  only,  but  also  with  simul- 
taneous changes  and  permanent  co-existences.  Given 
charges  of  powder  alike  in  quantity  and  quality,  fired  from 
barrels  of  the  same  structure,  and  propelling  bullets  of 
equal  weights,  sizes,  and  forms,  similarly  rammed  down ; 
and  it  is  a  necessary  inference  that  the  concomitant  actions 


THE   PEESISTENCE  OP  RELATIONS  AMOXG  rORCES.  195 

wliicli  make  up  tlie  explosion^  will  bear  to  one  another  like 
relations  of  quantity  and  quality  in  tlie  two  cases.  The  pro- 
portions among  the  different  products  of  combustion  will  be 
equal.  The  several  amounts  of  force  taken  up  in  giving 
momentum  to  the  bullet,  heat  to  the  gases,  and  sound  on 
their  escape,  will  preserve  the  same  ratios.  The  quantities 
of  light  and  smoke  in  the  one  case  will  be  what  they  are  in 
the  other ;  and  the  two  recoils  will  be  alike.  For  no  dif- 
ference of  proportion,  or  no  difference  of  relation,  among  these 
concurrent  phenomena  can  be  imagined  as  arising,  without 
imagining  such  difference  of  proportion  or  relation  as  arising 
uncaused — as  arising  by  the  creation  or  annihilation  of 
force. 

That  which  here  holds  between  two  cases  must  hold 
among  any  number  of  cases ;  and  that  which,  here  holds 
between  antecedents  and  consequents  that  are  comparatively 
simple,  must  hold  however  involved  the  antecedents  become 
and  however  involved  the  consequents  become. 

§  65.  Thus  what  we  call  uniformity  of  law,  resolvable  as 
we  find  it  into  the  persistence  of  relations  among  forces,  is 
an  immediate  corollary  from  the  persistence  of  force.  The 
general  conclusion  that  there  exist  constant  connexions 
among  phenomena,  ordinarily  regarded  as  an  inductive 
conclusion  only,  is  really  a  conclusion  deducible  from  the 
ultimate  datum  of  consciousness.  Though,  in  saying  this,  wc 
seem  to  be  illegitimately  inferring  that  what  is  true  of 
the  ego  is  also  true  of  tbe  non-ego  ;  yet  here  this  inference  is 
legitimate.  For  that  which  we  thus  predicate  as  holding  in 
common  of  ego  and  non-ego,  is  that  which,  they  have  in 
common  as  being  both  existences.  The  assertion  of  an  exist- 
ence beyond  consciousness,  is  itself  an  assertion  that  there  is 
something  beyond  consciousness  which  persists ;  for  persist- 
ence is  nothing  more  than  continued  existence,  and  existence 
cannot  be  thought  of  as  other  than  continued.  And  wo 
cannot  assert  persistence  of  this  something  beyond  conscious- 


196         THE   PERSISTENCE   OF   RELATIONS  AMONG  FORCES. 

nesSj  witliout  asserting  tliat  tlie  relations  among  its  mani- 
festations are  persistent. 

That  uniformity  of  law  tlius  follows  inevitably  from  tlie 
persistence  of  force,  will  become  more  and  more  clear  as  we 
advance.  The  next  chapter  will  indirectly  supply  abundant 
illustrations  of  ife. 


CHAPTER  Vm. 

THE    TRANSFORMATION    AND   EQUIVALENCE   OF   FORCES. 

§  GG-  When^  to  tlie  unaided  senses^  Science  began  to  add 
supplementary  senses  in  the  shape  of  measuring  instruments, 
men  began  to*  perceive  various  phenomena  which  eyes  and 
Angers  could  not  distinguish.  Of  known  forms  of  force, 
minuter  manifestations  became  appreciable ;  and  forms  of 
force  before  unknown  were  rendered  cognizable  and  measure- 
able.  Where  forces  had  apparently  ended  in  nothing,  and 
had  been  carelessly  supposed  to  have  actually  done  so,  instru- 
mental observation  proved  that  effects  had  in  every  instance 
been  produced  :  the  forces  reappearing  in  new  shapes. 
Hence  there  has  at  length  arisen  the  inquiry  whether  the 
force  displayed  in  each  surrounding  change,  does  not  in  the 
act  of  expenditure  undergo  metamorphosis  into  an  equivalent 
amount  of  some  other  force  or  forces.  And  to  this  inquiry 
experiment  is  giving  an  affirmative  answer,  which  becomes 
daily  more  decisive.  Meyer,  Joule,  Grove  and  Helmholtz 
are  more  than  any  others  to  be  credited  with  the  clear  enunci- 
ation of  this  doctrine.  Let  us  glance  at  the  evidence  on 
which  it  rests. 

Motion,  wherever  we  can  directly  trace  its  genesis,  we  find 
to  pre-exist  as  some  other  mode  of  force.  Our  own .  volun- 
tary acts  have  always  certain  sensations  of  muscolar 
tension  as  their  antecedents.  When,  as  in  letting  fall  a  re- 
laxed limb,  we  are  conscious  of  a  bodily  movement  requiring 
no  effort,  the  explanation  is  that  the  effort  was  exerted  in 


11)8     THE   TRANSFORMATION  AND   EQUIVALENCE   OF  FORCES. 

raising  the  limb  to  tlie  position  whence  it  fell.  In  this  case, 
as  in  the  case  of  an  inanimate  body  descending  to  the  Earth, 
the  force  accumulated  by  the  downward  motion  is  just  equal 
to  the  force  previously  expended  in  the  act  of  eleva- 
tion. Conversely,  Motion  that  is  arrested  produces, 
under  different  circumstances,  heat,  electricity,  magnetism, 
light.  From  the  warming  of  the  hands  by  rubbing  them 
together,  up  to  the  ignition  of  a  railway-brake  by  intense 
friction — from  the  lighting  of  detonating  powder  by  percus- 
sion, up  to  the  setting  on  fire  a  block  of  wood  by  a  few  blows 
from  a  steam-hammer ;  we  have  abundant  instances  in  which 
heat  arises  as  Motion  ceases.  It  is  uniformly  found,  that  the 
heat  generated  is  great  in  proportion  as  the  Motion  lost  is 
great ;  and  that  to  diminish  the  arrest  of  motion,  by  di- 
minishing the  friction,  is  to  diminish  the  quantity  of  heat 
evolved.  The  production  of  electricity  by  Motion  is  illus- 
trated equally  in  the  boy's  experiment  with  rubbed  sealing- 
wax,  in  the  common  electrical  machine,  and  in  the  apparatus 
for  exciting  electricity  by  the  escape  of  steam.  Wherever 
there  is  friction  between  heterogeneous  bodies,  electrical  dis- 
turbance is  one  of  the  consequences.  Magnetism  may  result 
from  Motion  either  immediately,  as  through  percussion  on 
iron,  or  mediately  as  through  electric  currents  previously 
generated  by  Motion.  And  similarly.  Motion  may  create 
light;  either  directly,  as  in  the  minute  incandescent  frag- 
ments struck  off  by  violent  collisions,  or  indirectly,  as 
through  the  electric  8j)ark.  "  Lastly,  Motion  may  be  again 
reproduced  by  the  forces  which  have  emanated  from  Motion  ; 
thus,  the  divergence  of  the  electrometer,  the  revolution  of 
the  electrical  wheel,  the  deflection  of  the  magnetic  needle, 
are,  when  resulting  from  frictional  electricity,  palpable  move- 
ments reproduced  by  the  intermediate  modes  of  force,  which 
have  themselves  been  originated  by  motion.'' 

That  mode  of  force  which  we  distinguish  as  Ilcat,  is  now 
generally  regarded  by  physicists  as  molecular  motion — not 
motion  as  displayed  in  the  changed  relations  of  sensible 


T^-:    TP.AXSFOEMATION   AND   EQUIVALENCE    OF   FORCES.     190 

masses  to  each  otlier,  but  as  occurring  among  the  units  of 
which  such  sensible  masses  consist.  If  we  cease  to  think  of 
Heat  as  that  particular  sensation  given  to  us  by  bodies  in 
certain  conditions,  and  consider  the  phenomena  otherwise 
presented  by  these  bodies,  we  find  that  motion,  either  in 
them  or  in  surrounding  bodies,  or  in  both,  is  all  that 
we  have  evidence  of.  With  one  or  two  exceptions  which  arc 
obstacles  to  every  theory  of  Heat,  heated  bodies  expand  ;  and 
expansion  can  be  interpreted  only  as  a  movement  of  the  units 
of  a  mass  in  relation  to  each  other.  That  so-called  radia- 
tion through  which  anything  of  higher  temperature  than 
things  around  it,  communicates  Heat  to  them,  is  clearly  a 
species  of  motion.  Moreover,  the  evidence  afibrded  by  the 
thermometer  that  Heat  thus  difiuses  itself,  is  simply  a  move- 
ment caused  in  the  mercurial  column.  And  that  the  molecular 
motion  which  we  call  Heat,  may  be  transformed  into  visible 
motion,  familiar  proof  is  given  by  the  steam-engine ;  in 
which  •  '*  the  piston  and  all  its  concomitant  masses  of  matter 
are  moved  by  the  molecular  dilatation  of  the  vapour  of 
water."  Where  Heat  is  absorbed  without  apparent 

result,  modern  inquiries  show  that  decided  though  unob- 
trusive changes  are  produced :  as  on  glass,  the  molecular 
state  of  which  is  so  far  changed  by  heat,  that  a  polarized  ray 
of  light  passing  through  it  becomes  visible,  which  it  docs  not 
do  when  the  glass  is  cold ;  or  as  on  polished  metallic  surfaces, 
which  are  so  far  changed  in  structure  by  thermal  radiations 
from  objects  very  close  to  them,  as  to  retain  permanent  im- 
pressions of  such  objects.  The  transformation  of  Heat  into 
electricity,  occurs  when  dissimilar  metals  touching  each  other 
are  heated  at  the  point  of  contact  :  electric  currents  being  so 
induced.  Solid,  incombustible  matter  introduced  into  heated 
gas,  as  lime  into  the  oxy-hydrogen  flame,  becomes  incande- 
scent ;  and  so  exhibits  the  conversion  of  Heat  into  light. 
The  production  of  magnetism  by  Heat,  if  it  cannot  be  proved 
to  take  place  directly,  may  be  proved  to  take  place  indirectly 
through  the  medium  of  electricity.     And  through  the  same 


200    THE  TEANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE   OP  FORCES. 

medium  may  be  establlslied  the  correlation  of  Heat  and 
chemical  affinity — a  correlation  which  is  indeed  implied  by 
the  marked  influence  that  Heat  exercises  on  chemical  com- 
position and  decomposition. 

The  transformations  of  Electricity  into  other  modes  of 
force,  are  still  more  clearly  demonstrable.  Produced  by  the 
motion  of  heterogeneous  bodies  in  contact,  Electricity,  through 
attractions  and  repulsions,  will  immediately  reproduce  motion 
in  neighbouring  bodies.  Now  a  current  of  Electricity  gener- 
ates magnetism  in  a  bar  of  soft  iron ;  and  now  the  rotation 
of  a  permanent  magnet  generates  currents  of  Electricity. 
Here  we  have  a  battery  in  which  from  the  play  of  chemical 
affinities  an  electric  current  results  ;  and  there,  in  the 
adjacent  cell,  we  have  an  electric  current  effecting  chemical 
decomposition.  In  the  conducting  wire  we  witness  the 
transformation  of  Electricity  into  heat ;  while  in  electric 
sparks  and  in  the  voltaic  arc  we  see  light  produced.  Atomic 
arrangement,  too,  is  changed  by  Electricity :  as  instance 
the  transfer  of  matter  from  pole  to  pole  of  a  battery ;  the 
fractures  caused  by  the  disruptive  discharge ;  the  formation 
of  crystals  under  the  influence  of  electric  currents.  And 
whether,  conversely.  Electricity  be  or  be  not  directly  gener- 
ated by  re- arrangement  of  the  atoms  of  matter,  it  is  at  any 
rate  indirectly  so  generated  through  the  intermediation  of 
magnetism. 

How  from  Magnetism  the  other  physical  forces  result, 
must  be  next  briefly  noted — briefly,  because  in  each  succes- 
sive case  the  illustrations  become  in  great  part  the  obverse 
forms  of  those  before  given.  That  Magnetism  produces 
motion  is  the  ordinary  evidence  we  have  of  its  existence.  In 
the  magneto-electric  machine  we  see  a  rotating  magnet 
evolving  electricity.  And  the  electricity  so  evolved  may 
immediately  after  exhibit  itself  as  heat,  light,  or  chemical 
affinity.  Faraday's  discovery  of  the  effect  of  Magnetism  ou 
polarized  light,  as  well  as  the  discovery  that  change  of  mag- 
netic state  is  accompanied  by  heat,  point  to  further  like  con- 


TfTE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE   OP  FORCES.     201 

nexions.  Lastly,  various  experiments  show  that  the  mag- 
netization of  a  body  alters  its  internal  structure ;  and  that 
conversely,  the  alteration  of  its  internal  structure,  as  by 
mechanical  strain,  alters  its  magnetic  condition. 

Improbable  as  it  seemed,  it  is  now  proved  that  from  Light 
also  may  proceed  the  like  variety  of  agencies.  The  solar  rays 
change  the  atomic  arrangements  of  particular  crystals. 
Certain  mixed  gases,  which  do  not  otherwise  combine,  com- 
bine in  the  sunshine.  In  some  compounds  Light  pro- 
duces decomposition.  Since  the  inquii-ies  of  photographers 
have  drawn  attention  to  the  subject,  it  has  been  shown  that 
"a  vast  number  of  substances,  both  elementary  and  com- 
pound, are  notably  affected  by  this  agent,  even  those  ap- 
parently the  most  unalterable  in  character,  such  as  metals/* 
And  when  a  daguerreotype  plate  is  connected  with  a  proper 
apparatus  "  we  get  chemical  action  on  the  plate,  electricity 
circulating  through  the  wires,  magnetism  in  the  coil,  heat  in 
the  helix,  and  motion  in  the  needles." 

The  genesis  of  all  other  modes  of  force  from  Chemical 
Action,  scarcely  needs  pointing  out.  The  ordinary  accom- 
paniment of  chemical  combination  is  heat ;  and  when  the 
affinities  are  intense,  light  also  is,  under  fit  conditions,  pro- 
duced. Chemical  changes  involving  alteration  of  bulk,  cause 
motion,  both  in  the  combining  elements  and  in  adjacent 
masses  of  matter :  witness  the  propulsion  of  a  bullet  by  the 
explosion  of  gun-powder.  In  the  galvanic  battery  we  see 
electricity  resulting  from  chemical  composition  and  decom- 
position. While  through  the  medium  of  this  electricity. 
Chemical  Action  produces  magnetism. 

These  facts,  the  larger  part  of  which  are  culled  from  Mr. 
Grove's  work  on  "  The  Correlation  of  Physical  Forces,"  show 
us  that  each  force  is  transformable,  directly  or  indirectly, 
into  the  others.  In  every  change  Force  undergoes  meta- 
morphosis ;  and  from  the  new  form  or  forms  it  assumes,  may 
subsequently  result  either  the  previous  one  or  any  of  the 
rest,  in  endless  variety    of  order   and   combination.     It  ia 


202     THE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE   OP  FORCES. 

further  becoming  manifest  that  the  physical  forces  stand  not 
simply  in  qualitative  correlations  with  each  other,  but  also  in 
quantitative  correlations.  Besides  proving  that  one  mode  of 
force  may  be  transformed  into  another  mode,  experiments 
illustrate  the  truth  that  from  a  definite  amount  of  one,  defi- 
lute  amounts  bf  others  always  arise.  Ordinarily  it  is  in- 
deed difficult  to  show  this ;  since  it  mostly  happens  that  the 
transfoi-mation  of  any  force  is  not  into  some  one  of  the  rest 
but  into  several  of  them :  the  proportions  being  determined 
by  the  ever-varying  conditions.  But  in  certain  cases,  posi- 
tive results  have  been  reached.  Mr.  Joule  has  ascertained 
that  the  fall  of  772  lbs.  through  one  foot,  will  raise  the 
temperature  of  a  pound  of  water  one  degree  of  Fahrenheit. 
The  investigations  of  Dulong,  Petit  and  Neumann,  have 
proved  a  relation  in  amount  between  the  affinities  of  combin- 
ing bodies  and  the  heat  evolved  during  their  combination.  Be- 
tween chemical  action  and  voltaic  electricity,  a  quantitative 
connexion  has  also  been  established  :  Faraday's  experiments 
implying  that  a  specific  measure  of  electricity  is  disengaged 
by  a  given  measure  of  chemical  action.  The  well-determined 
relations  between  the  quantities  of  heat  generated  and  water 
turned  into  steam,  or  stiU  better  the  known  expansion  pro- 
duced in  steam  by  each  additional  degree  of  heat,  may  be 
cited  in  further  evidence.  Whence  it  is  no  longer  doubted 
that  among  the  several  forms  which  force  assumes,  the 
quantitative  relations  are  fixed.  The  conclusion  tacitly 
agreed  on  by  physicists,  is,  not  only  that  the  physical  forces 
undergo  metamorphoses,  but  that  a  certain  amount  of  each  is 
the  constant  equivalent  of  certain  amounts  of  the  others. 

§  67.  Everywhere  throughout  the  Cosmos  this  truth  must 
invariably  hold.  Every  successive  change,  or  group  of 
changes,  going  on  in  it,  must  be  due  to  forces  affiliable  on 
the  like  or  unlike  forces  previously  existing ;  while  from  the 
forces  exhibited  in  such  change  or  changes  must  be  derived 
others  more  or  less  transformed.     And  besides  recognizing 


THE   TRANSFORMATION   AND  EQUIVALENCE   OP  FORCES.      203 

fcliis  necessary  linking  of  tlio  forces  at  any  time  manifested, 
with  those  preceding  and  succeeding  them,  we  must 
recognize  the  amounts  of  these  forces  as  determinate — as 
necessarily  producing  such  and  such  quantities  of  results, 
and  as  necessarily  limited  to  those  quantities. 

That  unification  of  knowledge  which  is  the  business  of 
Philosophy,  is  but  little  furthered  by  the  establishment  of 
this  truth  under  its  general  form.  We  must  trace  it  out 
under  its  leading  special  forms.  Changes,  and  the  accom- 
panying transformations  of  forces,  are  everywhere  in  pro- 
gress, from  the  movements  of  stars  to  the  currents  of  our 
thoughts;  and  to  comprehend,  in  any  adequate  way,  the 
meaning  of  the  great  fact  that  forces,  unceasingly  metamor- 
phosed, are  nowhere  increased  or  decreased,  it  is  requisite 
for  us  to  contemplate  the  various  orders  of  changes  going  on 
around,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whence  arise  the 
forces  they  imply  and  what  becomes  of  these  forces.  Of 
course  if  answerable  at  all,  these  questions  can  be  answered 
only  in  the  rudest  way.  We  cannot  hope  to  establish 
equivalence  among  the  successive  manifestations  of  force. 
The  most  we  can  hope  is  to  establish  a  qualitative  correla- 
tion that  is  indefinitely  quantitative — quantitative  to  the 
extent  of  involving  something  like  a  due  proportion  between 
causes  and  effects. 

Let  us,  with  the  view  of  trying  to  do  this,  consider  in 
succession  the  several  classes  of  phenomena  which  the  several 
concrete  sciences  deal  with. 

§  68.  The  antecedents  of  those  forces  which  our  Solar 
System  displays,  belong  to  a  past  of  which  we  can  never  have 
anything  but  inferential  knowledge ;  and  at  present  wo  cannot 
be  said  to  have  even  this.  Numerous  and  strong  as  are  the 
reasons  for  believing  the  Nebular  Hypothesis,  we  cannot  yet 
regard  it  as  more  than  an  hypothesis.  If,  ho\vever,  we 
assume  that  the  matter  composing  the  Solar  System  once 
existed  in  a  diffused  state,  we  have,  in  the  gravitation  of  itfi 


204      THE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OF  FORCES. 

parts,  a  force  adequate  to  produce  tlie  motix)ns  now  going 
on. 

Masses  of  precipitated  nebulous  matter,  moving  towards 
tlieir  common  centre  of  gravity  tlirougli  tlie  resisting  medium 
from  wliicli  they  were  precipitated,  will  inevitably  cause  a 
general  rotation,  increasing  in  rapidity  as  tlie  concentration 
progresses.  So  far  as  the  evidence  carries  us,  we  perceive 
some  quantitative  relation  between  the  motions  so  generated 
and  the  gravitative  forces  expended  in  generating  them. 
The  planets  formed  from  that  matter  which  has  travelled  the 
shortest  distance  towards  the  common  centre  of  gravity, 
have  the  smallest  velocities.  Doubtless  this  is  explicable  on 
the  teleological  hypothesis ;  since  it  is  a  condition  to  equi- 
librium. But  without  insisting  that  this  is  beside  the  ques- 
tion, it  will  suffice  to  point  out  that  the  like  cannot  be  said 
of  the  planetary  rotations.  No  such  final  cause  can  be 
assigned  for  the  rapid  axial  movenient  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
or  the  slow  axial  movement  of  Mercury.  If,  however,  in 
pursuance  of  the  doctrine  of  transformation,  we  look  for  the 
antecedents  of  these  gyrations  which  all  planets  exhibit,  the 
nebular  hypothesis  furnishes  us  with  antecedents  which  bear 
manifest  quantitative  relations  to  the  motions  displayed. 
For  the  planets  that  turn  on  their  axes  with  extreme 
rapidity,  are  those  having  great  masses  and  large  orbits — 
those,  that  is,  of  which  the  once  diffused  elements  moved  to 
their  centres  of  gravity  through  immense  spaces,  and  so 
acquired  high  velocities.  "While,  conversely,  the  planets 
which  rotate  with  the  smallest  velocities,  are  those  formed 
out  of  the  smallest  nebulous  rings — a  relation  still  better 
shown  by  satellites. 

'^  But  what,^'  it  may  bo  asked,  "  has  in  such  case  become 
of  all  that  motion  which  brought  about  the  aggregation  oi 
this  diffused  matter  into  solid  bodies  ?  "  The  answer  is  that 
it  has  been  radiated  in  the  form  of  heat  and  light ;  and  this 
answer  the  evidence,  so  far  as  it  goes,  confirms.  Geologists 
conclude  that  the  heat  of  the  Earth's  still  molten  nucleus  is 


THE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OF  FORCES.   205 

bat  a  remnant  of  tlie  lieat  wliicli  once  made  molten  the 
entire  Earth.  The  mountainous  surfaces  of  the  Moon  and 
of  Yenus  (which  alone  are  near  enough  to  be  scrutinized), 
indicating,  as  they  do^  crusts  that  have,  hke  our  own,  been 
corrugated  by  contraction,  imply  that  these  bodies  too  have 
undergone  refrigeration.  Lastly,  we  have  in  the  Sun  a  still- 
continued  production  of  this  heat  and  light,  which  must 
result  from  the  arrest  of  diffused  matter  moving  towards  a 
common  centre  of  gravity.  Here  also,  as  before,  a 

quantitative  relation  is  traceable.  Among  the  bodies  which 
make  up  the  Solar  System,  those  containing  comparatively 
small  amounts  of  matter  whose  centripetal  motion  has  been 
destroyed,  have  abeady  lost  nearly  all  the  produced  heat :  a 
result  which  their  relatively  larger  surfaces  have  facilitated. 
But  the  Sun,  a  thousand  times  as  great  in  mass  as  the 
largest  planet,  and  having  therefore  to  give  off  an  enormously 
greater  quantity  of  heat  and  light  due  to  arrest  of  moving 
matter,  is  still  radiating  with  great  intensity. 

§  GS.  If  we  inquire  the  origin  of  those  forces  which  have 
vrrought  the  surface  of  our  planet  into  its  present  shape,  vfQ 
find  them  traceable  to  the  primordial  source  just  assigned. 
Assuming  the  solar  system  to  have  arisen  as  above  supposed, 
then  geologic  changes  are  either  direct  or  indirect  results 
of  the  unexpended  heat  caused  by  nebular  condensation. 
These  changes  are  commonly  divided  into  igneous  and 
aqueous — ^heads  under  which  we  may  most  conveniently 
consider  them. 

All  those  periodic  disturbances  which  we  call  earthquakes, 
all  those  elevations  and  subsidences  ?rhich  they  severally 
produce,  all  those  accumulated  effects  of  many  such  eleva- 
tions and  subsidences  exhibited  in  ocean-basins,  islands,  con- 
tinents, table-lands,  mountain -chains,  and  all  those  forma- 
tions which  are  distinguished  as  volcanic,  geologists  now 
regard  as  modifications  of  the  Earth's  crust  produced  by  the 
still-molten  matter  occupying  its  interior.     However  unten- 


20G    THE   IRANSFOEMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OP  FOECES. 

able  may  be  the  details  of  M.  Elie  de  Beaumont's  theory, 
there  is  good  reason  to  accept  the  general  proposition  that 
the  disruptions  and  variations  of  level  which  take  place  at 
intervals  on  the  terrestrial  surface,  are  due  to  the  progressive 
collapse  of  the  Earth's  solid  envelope  upon  its  cooling  and 
contracting  nucleus.  Even  supposing  that  volcanic  erup- 
tions, extrusions  of  igneous  rock,  and  upheaved  mountain- 
chains,  could  be  otherwise  satisfactorily  accounted  for,  which 
they  cannot ;  it  would  be  impossible  otherwise  to  account  for 
those  wide-spread  elevations  and  depressions  whence  conti- 
nents and  oceans  result.  The  conclusion  to  be  drawn  is, 
then,  that  the  forces  displayed  in  these  so-called  igneous 
changes,  are  derived  positively  or  negatively  from  the  unex- 
pended heat  of  the  Earth's  interior.  Such  phenomena  as  the 
fusion  or  agglutination  of  sedimentary  deposits,  the  warming 
of  springs,  the  sublimation  of  metals  into  the  fissures  where 
we  find  them  as  ores,  may  be  regarded  as  positive  results  of 
this  residuary  heat ;  while  fractures  of  strata  and  alterations 
of  level  are  its  negative  results,  since  they  ensue  on  its  escape. 
The  original  cause  of  all  these  efifects  is  still,  however,  as  it 
has  been  from  the  first,  the  gravitating  movement  of  the 
Earth's  matter  towards  the  Earth's  centre  ;  seeing  that  to 
this  is  due  both  the  internal  heat  itself  and  the  collapse 
which  takes  place  as  it  is  radiated  into  space. 

When  we  inquire  under  what  forms  previously  existed  the 
force  which  works  out  the  geological  changes  classed  as 
aqueous,  the  answer  is  less  obvious.  The  efiects  of  rain,  of 
rivers,  of  winds,  of  waves,  of  marine  currents,  do  not  mani- 
festly proceed  from  one  general  source.  Analysis,  neverthe- 
less, proves  to  us  that  they  have  a  common  genesis.  If  we 
ask, — Whence  comes  the  power  of  the  river-current,  bearing 
sediment  down  to  the  sea  ?  the  reply  is, — The  gravitation  of 
water  throughout  the  tract  which  this  river  drains.  If  wo 
ask, — How  came  the  water  to  be  dispersed  over  this  tract  ?  the 
reply  is, — It  fell  in  the  shape  of  rain.  If  we  ask, — How  came 
the  rain  to  be  in  that  position,  whence  it  fell  ?     the  reply  k, 


THE   TRANSITOEMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE   OF   FORCES.     207 

—The  vapour  from  whicli  it  was  condensed  was  drifted  there 
by  the  winds.  If  we  ask, — How  came  this  vapour  to  be  at 
that  elevation  ?  the  reply  is, — It  was  raised  by  evaporation. 
And  if  we  ask, — "What  force  thus  raised  it  ?  the  reply  is, — 
The  sun's  heat.  Just  that  amount  of  gravitative  force  which 
the  sun's  heat  overcame  in  raising  the  atoms  of  water,  is 
given  out  again  in  the  fall  of  those  atoms  to  the  same  level. 
FEence  the  denudations  effected  by  rain  and  rivers,  during 
the  descent  of  this  condensed  vapour  to  the  level  of  the  sea, 
are  indirectly  due  to  the  sun's  heat.  Similarly  with  the 
winds  that  transport  the  vapours  hither  and  thither.  Con- 
sequent as  atmospheric  currents  are  on  differences  of  tempera- 
ture (either  general,  as  between  the  equatorial  and  polar 
regions,  or  special  as  between  tracts  of  the  Earth's  surface  of 
unlike  physical  characters)  all  such  currents  are  due  to  that 
source  from  which  the  varying  quantities  of  heat  proceed. 
And  if  the  winds  thus  originate,  so  too  do  the  waves  raised 
by  them  on  the  sea's  surface.  Whence  it  follows  that  what- 
ever changes  waves  produce — the  wearing  away  of  shores, 
the  breaking  down  of  rocks  into  shingle,  sand,  and  mud — 
are  also  traceable  to  the  solar  rays  as  their  primary  cause. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  ocean-currents.  Generated  as  the 
larger  ones  are  by  the  excess  of  heat  which  the  ocean  in 
tropical  climates  continually  acquires  from  the  Sun ;  and 
generated  as  the  smaller  ones  are  by  minor  local  differences 
in  the  quantities  of  solar  heat  absorbed ;  it  follows  that  the 
distribution  of  sediment  and  other  geological  processes  which 
these  marine  currents  effect,  are  affiliable  upon  the  force 
which  the  sun  radiates.  The  only  aqueous  agency  otherwise 
originating  is  that  of  the  tides — an  agency  which,  equally  witli 
the  others,  is  traceable  to  unexpended  astronomical  motion. 
But  making  allowance  for  the  changes  which  this  works,  we 
reach  the  conclusion  that  the  slow  wearing  down  of  conti- 
nents and  gradual  filling  up  of  seas,  by  rain,  rivers,  winds, 
waves,  and  ocean- streams,  are  the  indirect  effects  of  solar 
heat. 


208  THE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OF  FORCES. 

Thus  the  inference  forced  on  us  by  tlie  doctrine  of  trans- 
formation, that  the  forces  which  have  moulded  and  re- 
moulded the  Earth's  crust  must  have  pre-existed  under  some 
other  shape,  presents  no  difficulty  if  nebular  genesis  be 
granted ;  since  this  pre-supposes  certain  forces  that  are  both 
adequate  to  the  results,  and  cannot  be  expended  without  pro- 
ducing the  results.  We  see  that  while  the  geological  changes 
classed  as  igneous,  arise  from  the  still-progressing  motion  of 
the  Earth's  substance  to  its  centre  of  gravity;  the  antagonistic 
changes  classed  as  aqueous,  arise  fi^om  the  still-progressing 
motion  of  the  Sun's  substance  towards  its  centre  of  gravity — 
a  motion  which,  transformed  into  heat  and  radiated  to  us,  is 
here  re-transformed,  directly  into  motions  of  the  gaseous  and 
liquid  matters  on  the  Earth's  surface,  and  indirectly  into 
motions  of  the  solid  matters. 

§  70.  That  the  forces  exhibited  in  vital  actions,  vegetal 
and  animal,  are  similarly  derived,  is  so  obvious  a  deduction 
from  the  facts  of  organic  chemistry,  that  it  will  meet  with 
ready  acceptance  from  readers  acquainted  with  these  facts. 
Let  us  note  first  the  physiological  generalizations ;  and  then 
the  generalizations  which  they  necessitate. 

Plant-life  is  all  directly  or  indirectly  dependent  on  the 
heat  and  light  of  the  sun— directly  dependent  in  the  im- 
mense majority  of  plants,  and  indirectly  dependent  in  plants 
which,  as  the  fungi,  flourish  in  the  dark  :  since  these,  growing 
as  they  do  at  the  expense  of  decaying  organic  matter,  medi- 
ately draw  their  forces  from  the  same  original  source.  Each 
plant  owes  the  carbon  and  hydrogen  of  which  it  mainly  con- 
sists, to  the  carbonic  acid  and  water  contained  in  the  surround- 
ing air  and  earth.  The  carbonic  acid  and  water  must,  how- 
ever, be  decomposed  before  their  carbon  and  hydrogen  can 
be  assimilated.  To  overcome  the  powerful  affinities  which 
nold  their  elements  together,  requires  the  expenditure  of 
force;  and  this  force  is  supplied  by  the  Sun.  In  what 
manner  the  decomposition  is  efiected  we  do  Hot  know.     But 


THE  TEANSFOEMATION  AND  EQUIYALENCE   OP  FORCES.     2Q\) 

\re  know  tliat  wiien,  under  fit  conditions,  plants  are  exposed 
to  the  Sun's  rays,  they  give  off  oxygen  and  accumulate  carbon 
and  hydrogen.  In  darkness  this  process  ceases.  It  ceases 
too  when  the  quantities  of  light  and  heat  received  are  greatly 
reduced,  as  in  winter.  Conversely,  it  is  active  when  the  light 
and  heat  are  great,  as  in  summer.  And  the  like  relation  is 
seen  in  the  fact  that  while  plant-life  is  luxui-iant  in  the 
tropics,  it  diminishes  in  temperate  regions,  and  disappears  as 
we  approach  the  poles.  Thus  the  irresistible  inference  is, 
that  the  forces  by  which  plants  abstract  the  materials  of  their 
tissues  from  surrounding  inorganic  compounds — the  forces  by 
which  they  grow  and  carry  on  their  functions,  are  forces  that 
previously  existed  as  solar  radiations. 

That  animal  life  is  immediately  or  mediately  dependent  on 
vegetal  life  is  a  familiar  truth ;  and  that,  in  the  main,  the 
processes  of  animal  life  are  opposite  to  those  of  vegetal  life  is  a 
truth  long  current  among  men  of  science.  Chemically  con- 
sidered, vegetal  life  is  chiefly  a  process  of  de-oxidation,  and 
animal  life  chiefly  a  process  of  oxidation:  chiefly,  we  must 
say,  because  in  so  far  as  plants  are  expenders  of  force  for  the 
purposes  of  organization,  they  are  oxidizers  (as  is  shovm  by 
the  exhalation  of  carbonic  acid  during  the  night)  ;  and  ani- 
mals, in  some  of  their  minor  processes,  are  probably  de-oxi- 
dizers.  But  with  this  qualification,  the  general  truth  is 
that  while  the  plant,  decomposing  carbonic  acid  and  water 
and  liberating  oxygen,  builds  up  the  detained  carbon  and 
hydrogen  (along  with  a  little  nitrogen  and  small  quanti- 
ties of  other  elements  elsewhere  obtained)  into  branches, 
leaves,  and  seeds;  the  animal,  consuming  these  branches, 
leaves,  and  seeds,  and  absorbing  oxygen,  recomposes  car- 
bonic acid  and  water,  together  with  certain  nitrogenous 
compounds  in  minor  amounts.  And  while  the  decom- 
position effected  by  the  plant,  is  at  the  expense  of  cer- 
tain forces  emanating  from  the  sun,  which  are  employed 
in  overcoming  the  affinities  of  carbon  and  hydrogen  for  the 
oxygen  united  with  them ;  the  re-composition  effected  by  the 


210    THE  TEANSFOEMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OP  FORCES. 

animal,  is  at  the  profit  of  these  forces,  whicli  are  liberated 
during  the  combination  of  such  elements.  Thus  the  move- 
ments, internal  and  external,  of  the  animal,  are  re- appear- 
ances in  new  forms  of  a  power  absorbed  by  the  plant  imder 
the  shape  of  light  and  heat.  Just  as,  in  the  manner 
above  explained,  the  solar  forces  expended  in  raising  vapour 
from  the  sea's  surface,  are  given  out  again  in  the  fall  of  rain 
and  rivers  to  the  same  level,  and  in  the  accompanying  trans- 
fer of  solid  matters  ;  so,  the  solar  forces  that  in  the  plant 
raised  certain  chemical  elements  to  a  condition  of  unstable 
equilibrium,  are  given  out  again  in  the  actions  of  the  animal 
during  the  fall  of  these  elements  to  a  condition  of  stable 
equilibrium. 

Besides  thus  tracing  a  qualitative  correlation  between  these 
two  great  orders  of  organic  activity,  as  well  as  between  both 
of  them  and  inorganic  agencies,  we  may  rudely  trace  a 
quantitative  correlation.  Where  vegetal  life  is  abundant,  we 
usually  find  abundant  animal  life ;  and  as  we  advance  from 
torrid  to  temperate  and  frigid  climates,  the  two  decrease  to- 
gether. Speaking  generally,  the  animals  of  each  class  reach 
a  larger  size  in  regions  where  vegetation  is  abundant,  than 
in  those  where  it  is  sparse.  And  further,  there  is  a  tolerably 
apparent  connexion  between  the  quantity  of  energy  which 
each  species  of  animal  expends,  and  the  quantity  of  force 
which  the  nutriment  it  absorbs  gives  out  during  oxidation. 

Certain  phenomena  of  development  in  both  plants  and 
animals,  illustrate  still  more  directly  the  ultimate  trutli 
enunciated.  Pursuing  the  suggestion  made  by  Mr.  Grove, 
in  the  first  edition  of  his  work  on  the  "  Correlation  of  the 
Physical  Forces,"  that  a  connexion  probably  exists  between 
the  forces  classed  as  vital  and  those  classed  as  physical. 
Dr.  Carpenter  has  pointed  out  that  such  a  connexion  is 
clearly  exhibited  during  incubation.  The  transformation  of 
the  unorganized  contents  of  an  egg  into  the  organized  chick, 
is  altogether  a  question  of  heat :  withhold  heat  and  the  process 
does  not  commence ;  supply  heat  and  it  goes  on  while  the 


THE   TEANSFORMATION   AND   EQUIVALENCE   OF   FORCES.     211 

temperature  is  maintained,  but  ceases  wlien  the  egg  is  allowed 
to  cool.  The  developmental  changes  can  be  completed  only 
Dy  keeping  the  temperature  with  tolerable  constancy  at  a 
definite  height  for  a  definite  time  ;  that  is — only  by  supply- 
ing a  definite  quantity  of  heat.  In  the  metamorphoses  of 
insects  we  may  discern  parallel  facts.  Experiments  show 
not  only  that  the  hatching  of  their  eggs  is  determined  by 
temperature,  but  also  that  the  evolution  of  the  pupa  into  the 
imago  is  similarly  determined  ;  and  may  be  immensely  ac- 
celerated or  retarded  according  as  heat  is  artificially  supplied 
or  withheld.  It  will  suffice  just  to  add  that  the  germination  of 
plants  presents  like  relations  of  cause  and  efiect — relations  so 
similar  that  detail  is  superfluous. 

Thus  then  the  various  changes  exhibited  to  us  by  the 
organic  creation,  whether  considered  as  a  whole,  or  in  its  two 
great  divisions,  or  in  its  individual  members,  conform,  so  far 
as  we  can  ascertain,  to  the  general  principle.  Where,  as  in 
the  transformation  of  an  egg  into  a  chick,  we  can  investigate 
the  phenomena  apart  from  all  complications,  we  find  that  the 
force  manifested  in  the  process  of  organisation,  involves 
expenditure  of  a  pre-existing  force.  "Where  it  is  not,  as 
in  the  egg  or  the  chrysalis,  merely  the  change  of  a  fixed 
quantity  of  matter  into  a  new  shape,  but  where,  as  in  the 
growing  plant  or  animal,  we  have  an  incorporation  of  matter 
existing  outside,  there  is  still  a  pre-existing  external  force 
at  the  cost  of  which  this  incorporation  is  efiected.  And 
where,  as  in  the  higher  division  of  organisms,  there  re- 
main over  and  above  the  forces  expended  in  organization, 
certain  surplus  forces  expended  in  movement,  these  too  are 
indirectly  derived  from  this  same  pre-existing  external  force. 

§  71.  Even  after  all  that  has  been  said  in  the  foregoing 
part  of  this  work,  many  will  be  alarmed  by  the  assertion, 
that  the  forces  which  we  distinguish  as  mental,  come  within 
the  same  generalization.  Yet  there  is  no  alternative  but  to 
make  this  assertion  :  the  facts  which  justify,  or  rather  which 


212     THE  TEANSFORMATION   AND   EQUIVALENCE   OP   FORCES. 

necessitate  it,  being  abundant  and  conspicuous.  Tbey  fall 
into  the  following  groups. 

All  impressions  from  moment  to  moment  made  on  our 
organs  of  sense,  stand  in  direct  correlation  witb  pbysical 
forces  existing  externally.  The  modes  of  consciousness  called 
pressure,  motion,  sound,  light,  beat,  are  effects  produced  in 
us  by  agencies  which,  as  otherwise  expended,  crush  or  fracture 
pieces  of  matter,  generate  yibrations  in  surrounding  objects, 
cause  chemical  combinations,  and  reduce  substances  from  a 
solid  to  a  liquid  form.  Hence  if  we  regard  the  changes  of 
relative  position,  of  aggregation,  or  of  chemical  state,  thus 
arising,  as  being  transformed  manifestations  of  the  agencies 
from  which  they  arise  ;  so  must  we  regard  the  sensations 
which  such  agencies  produce  in  us,  as  new  forms  of  the  forces 
producing  them.  Any  hesitation  to  admit  that,  be- 

tween the  phj^sical  forces  and  the  sensations  there  exists  a 
correlation  like  that  between  the  physical  forces  themselves, 
must  disappear  on  remembering  how  the  one  correlation,  like 
the  other,  is  not  qualitative  only  but  quantitative.  Masses 
of  matter  which,  by  scales  or  dynamometer,  are  shown  to 
differ  greatly  in  weight,  differ  as  greatly  in  the  feeKngs  of 
pressure  they  produce  on  our  bodies.  In  arresting  moving 
objects,  the  strains  we  are  conscious  of  are  proportionate  to 
the  momenta  of  such  objects  as  otherwise  measured.  Under 
like  conditions  the  impressions  of  sounds  given  to  us  by 
vibrating  strings,  bells,  or  columns  of  air,  are  found  to  vary 
in  strength  with  the  amount  of  force  applied.  Fluids  or 
solids  proved  to  be  markedly  contrasted  in  temperature  by 
the  different  degrees  of  expansion  they  produce  in  the 
mercurial  column,  produce  in  us  correspondingly  different 
degrees  of  the  sensation  of  heat.  And  similarly  unlike  in- 
tensities in  our  impressions  of  light,  answer  to  unlike  effects 
as  measured  by  photometers. 

Besides  the  correlation  and  equivalence  between  external 
physical  forces,  and  the  mental  forces  generated  by  them  in 
us  under  the  form  of  sensations,  there  is  a  correlation  and 


THE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OP  FORCES.  213 

equivalence  between  sensations  and  those  physical  forces 
which,  in  the  shape  of  bodily  actions,  result  from  them.  The 
feelings  we  distinguish  as  light,  heat,  sound,  odour,  taste, 
pressure,  &c.,  do  not  die  away  without  immediate  results  ; 
but  are  invariably  followed  by  other  manifestations  of  force. 
In  addition  to  the  excitements  of  secreting  organs,  that  are 
in  some  cases  traceable,  there  arises  a  contraction  of  the  in- 
voluntary muscles,  or  of  the  voluntary  muscles,  or  of  both. 
Sensations  increase  the  action  of  the  heart — slightly  when 
they  are  slight ;  markedly  when  they  are  marked  ;  and  recent 
physiological  inquiries  imply  not  only  that  contraction  of  the 
heart  is  excited  by  every  sensation,  but  also  that  the  muscular 
fibres  throughout  the  whole  vascular  system,  are  at  the  same 
time  more  or  less  contracted.  The  respiratory  muscles,  too, 
are  stimulated  into  greater  activity  by  sensations.  The  rate 
of  breathing  is  visibly  and  audibly  augmented  both  by  plea- 
surable and  painful  impressions  on  the  nerves,  when  these 
reach  any  intensity.  It  has  even  of  late  been  shown  that 
inspiration  becomes  more  frequent  on  transition  from  dark- 
ness into  sunshine, — a  result  probably  due  to  the  increased 
amount  of  direct  and  indirect  nervous  stimulation  involved. 
When  the  quantity  of  sensation  is  great,  it  generates  con- 
tractions of  the  voluntary  muscles,  as  well  as  of  the  involun- 
tary ones.  Unusual  excitement  of  the  nerves  of  touch,  as  by 
tickling,  is  followed  by  almost  incontrollable  movements  of 
the  limbs.  Violent  pains  cause  violent  struggles.  The 
start  that  succeeds  a  loud  sound,  the  wry  face  produced  by 
the  taste  of  anything  extremely  disagreeable,  the  jerk  with 
which  the  hand  or  foot  is  snatched  out  of  water  that  is  very 
hot,  are  instances  of  the  transformation  of  feeling  into 
motion  ;  and  in  these  cases,  as  in  all  others,  it  is  manifest 
that  the  quantity  of  bodily  action  is  proportionate  to  the 
quantity  of  sensation.  Even  where  from  pride  there  is  a 
suppression  of  the  screams  and  groans  expressive  of  great 
pain  (also  indirect  results  of  muscular  contraction),  we  may 
still  see  in  the  clenching  of  the  hands,  the  knitting  of  the 


214     THE   TRANSFORMATION  AND   EQUIVALENCE   OF  FORCES. 

brows,  and  the  setting  of  tlie  teeth,  that  the  bodily  actione 
developed  are  as  great,  though  less  obtrusive  in  their  re- 
sults. If  we  take  emotions  instead  of  sensations,  we 
find  the  correlation  and  equivalence -equally  manifest.  Not 
only  are  the  modes  of  consciousness  directly  produced  in  us 
by  physical  forces,  re- transform  able  into  physical  forces  under 
the  form  of  muscular  motions  and  the  changes  they  initiate  ; 
but  the  like  is  true  of  those  modes  of  consciousness  which  are 
not  directly  produced  in  us  by  the  physical  forces.  Emotions 
of  moderate  intensity,  like  sensations  of  moderate  intensity, 
generate  little  beyond  excitement  of  the  heart  and  vascular 
system,  joined  sometimes  with  increased  action  of  glandular 
organs.  But  as  the  emotions  rise  in  strength,  the  muscles  of 
the  face,  body,  and  limbs,  begin  to  move.  Of  examples  may 
be  mentioned  the  frowns,  dilated  nostrils,  and  stampings  of 
anger ;  the  contracted  brows,  and  wrung  hands,  of  grief ;  the 
smiles  and  leaps  of  joy  ;  and  the  frantic  struggle3  of  terror  or 
despair.  Passing  over  certain  apparent,  but  only  apparent, 
exceptions,  we  see  that  whatever  be  the  kind  of  emotion, 
there  is  a  manifest  relation  between  its  amount,  and  the 
amount  of  muscular  action  induced  :  alike  from  the  erect 
carriage  and  elastic  step  of  exhilaration,  up  to  the  dancings 
of  immense  delight,  and  from  the  fidgettiness  of  impatience 
up  to  the  almost  convulsive  movements  accompanjdng  great 
mental  agony.  To  these  several  orders  of  evidence 
must  be  joined  the  further  one,  that  between  our  feelings  and 
those  voluntary  motions  into  which  they  are  transformed, 
there  comes  the  sensation  of  muscular  tension,  standing  in 
manifest  correlation  with  both  —  a  correlation  that  is  dis- 
tinctly quantitative :  the  sense  of  strain  varying,  other 
things  equal,  directly  as  the  quantity  of  momentum 
generated. 

"But  how,"  it  may  be  asked,  "can  we  interpret  by  the 
law  of  correlation  the  genesis  of  those  thoughts  and  feelings 
which,  instead  of  following  external  ctimuli,  arise  spontaneous- 
ly ?     Between  the  indignation  caused  by  an  insult,  and  the 


THE   TRANSFORMATION   AND   EQUIVALENCE    OF   FORCES.     215 

loud  sounds  or  violent  acts  that  follow,  the  alleged  connexion 
may  hold ;  but  whence  come  the  crowd  of  ideas  and  the  mass 
of  feelings  that  expend  tliemselves  in  these  demonstrations  ? 
They  are  clearly  not  equivalents  of  the  sensations  produced 
by  the  words  on  the  ears ;  for  the  same  words  otherwise 
arranged,  would  not  have  caused  them.  The  thing  said 
bears  to  the  mental  action  it  excites,  much  the  same  relation 
that  the  puUing  of  a  trigger  bears  to  the  subsequent  explo- 
sion— does  not  produce  the  power,  but  merely  liberates  it. 
Whence  then  arises  this  immense  amount  of  nervous  energy 
which  a  whisper  or  a  glance  may  call  forth?'*  The 

reply  is,  that  the  immediate  correlates  of  these  and  other  such 
modes  of  consciousness,  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  agencies 
acting  on  us  externally,  but  in  certain  internal  agencies. 
The  forces  called  vital,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  correlates 
of  the  forces  called  physical,  are  the  immediate  sources  of 
these  thoughts  and  feelings  ;  and  are  expended  in  producing 
them.  The  proofs  of  this  are  various.  Here  are  some  of 
them.  It  is  a  conspicuous  fact  that  mental  action  is 

contingent  on  the  presence  of  a  certain  nervous  apparatus  ; 
and.  that,  greatly  obscured  as  it  is  by  numerous  and  involved 
conditions,  a  general  relation  may  be  traced  between  the  size 
of  this  apparatus  and  the  quantity  of  mental  action  as  measur- 
ed by  its  results.  Further,  this  apparatus  has  a  particular 
chemical  constitution  on  which  its  activity  depends ;  and 
there  is  one  element  in  it  between  the  amount  of  which  and 
the  amount  of  function  performed,  there  is  an  ascertained 
connexion :  the  proportion  of  phosphorus  present  in  the  brain 
being  the  smallest  in  infancy,  old  age  and  idiotcy,  and  the 
greatest  during  the  prime  of  life.  Note  next,  that 

the  evolution  of  thought  and  emotion  varies,  other  things 
equal,  with  the  supply  of  blood  to  the  brain.  On  the  one 
hand,  a  cessation  of  the  cerebral  circulation,  from  arrest  of 
the  heart's  action,  immediately  entails  unconsciousness.  On 
the  other  hand,  excess  of  cerebral  circulation  (unless  it  is 
such  as  to  cause  undue  pressure)  results  in  an  excitement 


216    THE   TEANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OF  FOKCSS. 

rising  finally  to  delirium.  Not   tlie   quantity   onh^, 

but  also  the  condition  of  tlie  blood  passing  through  the 
nervous  system,  influences  the  mental  manifestations.  The 
arterial  currents  must  be  duly  aerated,  to  produce  the  normal 
amount  of  cerebration.  At  the  one  extreme,  we  find  that  if 
the  blood  is  not  allowed  to  exchange  its  carbonic  acid  for 
oxygen,  there  results  asphyxia,  with  its  accompanying  stop- 
page of  ideas  and  feelings.  While  at  the  other  extreme,  we 
find  that  by  the  inspiration  of  nitrous  oxide,  there  is  pro- 
duced an  excessive,  and  indeed  irrepressible,  nervous  ac- 
tivity. Besides  the  connexion  between  the  develop- 
ment of  the  mental  forces  and  the  presence  of  sufficient 
oxygen  in  the  cerebral  arteries,  there  is  a  kindred  connexion 
between  the  development  of  the  mental  forces  and  the  pre- 
sence in  the  cerebral  arteries  of  certain  other  elements. 
There  must  be  supplied  special  materials  for  the  nutrition  of 
the  nervous  centres,  as  well  as  for  their  oxidation.  And  how 
what  we  may  call  the  quantity  of  consciousness,  is,  other  things 
equal,  determined  by  the  constituents  of  the  blood,  is  unmis- 
takeably  seen  in  the  exaltation  that  follows  when  certain 
chemical  compounds,,  as  alcohol  and  the  vegeto-alkalies,  are 
added  to  it.  The  gentle  exhilaration  which  tea  and  cofiee 
create,  is  familiar  to  all ;  and  though  the  gorgeous  imagina- 
tions and  intense  feelings  of  happiness  produced  by  opium 
and  hashish,  have  been  experienced  by  few,  (in  this  country 
at  least,)  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  experienced  them 
is  sufficiently  conclusive.  Yet  another  proof  that  the 
genesis  of  the  mental  energies  is  immediately  dependent  on 
chemical  change,  is  afforded  by  the  fact,  that  the  effete  pro- 
ducts separated  from  the  blood  by  the  kidneys,  vary  in  cha- 
racter with  the  amount  of  cerebral  action.  Excessive  activity 
of  mind  is  habitually  accompanied  by  the  excretion  of  an  un- 
usual quantity  of  the  alkaliae  phosphates.  Conditions  of 
abnormal  nervous  excitement  bring  on  analogous  effects. 
And  the  "  peculiar  odour  of  the  insane,"  implying  as  it  does 
morbid  products  in  the  perspiration,  shows  a  connexion  bo- 


THE  TEANSPORMATION  AlTD  EQUIVALENCE   OF  F0ECE3.     217 

tween  insanity  and  a  special  composition  of  the  circulating 
fluids — a  composition  which,  whether  regarded  as  cause  or 
consequence,  equally  implies  correlation  of  the  mental  and 
the  physical  forces.  Lastly  we  have  to  note  that  this 

correlation  too,  is,  so  far  as  we  can  trace  it,  quantitative. 
Provided  the  conditions  to  nervous  action  are  not  infringed 
on,  and  the  concomitants  are  the  same,  there  is  a  tolerably 
constant  ratio  between  the  amounts  of  the  antecedents  and 
consequents.  "Within  the  implied  limits,  nervous  stimulants 
and  anaesthetics  produce  effects  on  the  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings, proportionate  to  the  quantities  administered.  And 
conversely,  where  the  thoughts  and  feelings  form  the  initial 
term  of  the  relation,  the  degree  of  reaction  on  the  bodily 
energies  is  great,  in  proportion  as  they  are  great :  reaching 
in  extreme  cases  a  total  prostration  of  physique. 

Various  classes  of  facts  thus  unite  to  prove  that  the  law  of 
metamorphosis,  which  holds  among  the  physical  forces, 
holds  equally  between  them  and  the  mental  forces. 
Those  modes  of  the  Unknowable  which  we  call  mo- 
tion, heat,  light,  chemical  affinity,  &c.,  are  alike  trans- 
formable into  each  other,  and  into  those  modes  of  the 
Unknowable  which  we  distinguish  as  sensation,  emotion, 
thought :  these,  in  their  turns,  being  directly  or  indirectly 
re-transformable  into  the  original  shapes.  That  no  idea  or 
feeling  arises,  save  as  a  result  of  some  physical  force  expended 
in  producing  it,  is  fast  becoming  a  common  place  of  science  ; 
and  whoever  duly  weighs  the  evidence  will  see,  that  nothing 
but  an  overwhelming  bias  in  favour  of  a  pre- conceived 
theory,   can   explain  its  non-acceptance.  How   this 

metamorphosis  takes  place — how  a  force  existing  as  motion, 
heat,  or  light,  can  become  a  mode  of  consciousness — how  it  is 
possible  for  aerial  vibrations  to  generate  the  sensation  we  call 
Bound,  or  for  the  forces  liberated  by  chemical  changes  in  the 
brain  to  give  rise  to  emotion — these  are  mysteries  which  it  is 
impossible  to  fathom.  But  they  are  not  profounder  mysteries 
than  the  transformations  of  the  physical  forces  into  each  other. 

11 


218     THE   TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE   OF  FORCES. 

They  are  not  more  completely  beyond  our  comprehension 
than  the  natures  of  Mind  and  Matter.  They  have  simply  the 
same  insolubility  as  all  other  ultimate  questions.  We  can 
learn  nothing  more  than  that  here  is  one  of  the  uniformities 
in  the  order  of  phenomena. 

§  72.  If  the  generallaw  of  transformation  and  equivalence 
holds  of  the  forces  we  class  as  vital  and  mental,  it  must  hold 
also  of  those  which  we  class  as  social.  Whatever  takes  place 
in  a  society  is  due  to  organic  or  inorganic  agencies,  or  to 
a  combination  of  the  two — results  either  from  the  undirected 
physical  forces  around,  from  these  physical  forces  as  directed 
by  men,  or  from  the  forces  of  the  men  themselves.  No 
change  can  occur  in  its  organization,  its  modes  of  activity,  or 
the  effects  it  produces  on  the  face  of  the  Earth,  but  what 
proceeds,  mediately  or  immediately,  from  these.  Let  us  con- 
sider first  the  correlation  between  the  phenomena  which 
societies  display,  and  the  vital  phenomena. 

Social  power  and  life  varies,  other  things  equal,  with  the 
population.  Though  different  races,  differing  widely  in  their 
fitness  for  combination,  show  us  that  the  forces  manifested  in 
a  society  are  not  necessarily  proportionate  to  the  number  of 
people ;  yet  we  see  that  under  given  conditions,  the  forces 
manifested  are  confined  within  the  limits  which  the  number 
of  people  imposes.  A  small  society,  no  matter  how  superior 
the  character  of  its  members,  cannot  exhibit  the  same 
quantity  of  social  action  as  a  large  one.  The  production  and 
distribution  of  commodities  must  be  on  a  comparatively  small 
scale.  A  multitudinous  press,  a  prolific  literature,  or  a 
massive  political  agitation,  is  not  possible.  And  there  can 
be  but  a  small  total  of  results  in  the  shape  of  art-products 
and  scientific   discoveries.  The    correlation   of   the 

social  with  the  physical  forces  through  the  intermediation  of 
the  vital  ones,  is,  however,  most  clearly  shown  in  the  diffcrejit 
amounts  of  activity  displayed  by  the  same  society  according 
as  its  members  are  supplied  with  different  amounts  of  force 


I 


THE   TRANSFORMATION   AND   EQUIVALENCE   OF   FORCES.     219 

from  the  external  -woTld.  In  tlie  effects  of  good  and  bad 
harvests,  we  yearly  see  this  relation  illustrated.  A  greatly 
deficient  yield  of  wheat  is  soon  followed  by  a  diminution  of 
business.  Factories  are  worked  half-time,  or  close  entirely  ; 
railway  traffic  falls  ;  retailers  find  their  sales  much  lessened  ; 
houso-building  is  almost  suspended  ;  and  if  the  scarcity 
rises  to  famine,  a  thinning  of  the  population  still  more 
diminishes  the  industrial  vivacity.  Conversely,  an  unusually 
abundant  harvest,  occurring  under  conditions  not  otherwise 
unfavourable,  both  excites  the  old  producing  and  distributing 
agencies  and  sets  up  new  ones.  The  surplus  social  energy 
finds  vent  in  speculative  enterprises.  Capital  seeking  in- 
vestment carries  out  inventions  that  have  been  lying  unutil- 
ized. Labour  is  expended  in  opening  new  channels  of  com- 
munication. There  is  increased  encouragement  to  those  who 
furnish  the  luxuries  of  life  and  minister  to  the  esthetic 
faculties.  There  are  more  marriages,  and  a  greater  rate  of 
increase  in  population.  Thus  the  social  organism  grows 
larger,  more  complex,  and  more  active.  When,  as 

happens  with  most  civilized  nations,  the  whole  of  the  ma- 
terials for  subsistence  are  not  drawn  from  the  area  inhabited, 
but  are  partly  imported,  the  people  are  still  supported  by 
certain  harvests  elsewhere  grown  at  the  expense  of  certain 
physical  forces.  Our  own  cotton- spinners  and  weavers  supply 
the  most  conspicuous  instance  of  a  section  in  one  nation  liv- 
ing, in  great  part,  on  imported  commodities,  purchased  by  the 
labour  they  expend  on  other  imported  commodities.  But 
though  the  social  activities  of  Lancashire  are  due  chiefly  to 
materials  not  drawn  from  our  own  soil,  they  are  none  the  less 
evolved  from  physical  forces  elsewhere  stored  up  in  fit  forms 
and  then  brought  here. 

If  we  ask  whence-  come  these  physical  forces  from  which, 
through  the  intermediation  of  the  vital  forces,  the  social 
forces  arise,  the  reply  is  of  course  as  heretofore — the  solar 
radiations.  Based  as  the  life  of  a  society  is  on  animal  and 
vegetal  products  ;  and  dependent  as  these  animal  and  vegetal 


!0    THE  TEANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE   OP  F0TICE3. 

products  are  on  the  light  and  heat  of  the  sun  ;  it  follows  that 
the  changes  going  on  in  societies  are  effects  of  forces  having 
a  common  origin  with  those  which  produce  all  the  other 
orders  of  changes  that  have  been  analyzed.  Not  only  is  the 
force  expended  by  the  horse  harnessed  to  the  plough,  and  by 
the  labourer  guiding  it,  derived  from  the  same  reservoir 
as  is  the  force  of  the  fallino^  cataract  and  the  roarina:  hurri- 
cane  ;  but  to  this  same  reservoir  are  eventually  traceable  those 
subtler  and  more  complex  manifestations  of  force  which 
humanity,  as  socially  embodied,  evolves.  The  assertion  is  a 
startling  one,  and  by  many  will  be  thought  ludicrous  ;  but  it 
is  an  unavoidable  deduction  which  cannot  here  be  passed  over. 
Of  the  physical  forces  that  are  directly  transformed  into 
social  ones,  the  like  is  to  be  said.  Currents  of  air  and  water, 
which  before  the  use  of  steam  were  the  only  agencies  brought 
in  aid  of  muscular  effort  for  the  performance  of  industrial 
processes,  are,  as  we  have  seen,  generated  by  the  *heat  of  the 
sun.  And  the  inanimate  power  that  now,  to  so  vast  an 
extent,  supplements  human  labour,  is  similarly  derived.  The 
late  George  Stephenson  was  one  of  the  first  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  force  impelling  his  locomotive,  originally  eman- 
ated from  the  sun.  Step  by  step  we  go  back — from  the  mo- 
tion of  the  piston  to  the  evaporation  of  the  water ;  thence  to 
the  heat  evolved  during  the  oxidation  of  coal ;  thence  to  the 
assimilation  of  carbon  by  the  plants  of  whose  imbedded  re- 
mains coal  consists ;  thence  to  the  carbonic  acid  from  which 
their  carbon  was  obtained;  and  thence  to  the  rays  of  light 
that  de-oxidized  this  carbonic  acid.  Solar  forces  millions  of 
years  ago  expended  on  the  Earth's  vegetation,  and  sinco 
iocked  up  beneath  its  surface,  now  smelt  the  metals  required 
^br  our  machines,  turn  the  lathes  by  which  the  machines  are 
Bhaped,  work  them  when  put  together,  and  distribute  the 
fabrics  they  produce.  And  in  so  far  as  economy  of  labour 
makes  possible  the  support  of  a  larger  population  ;  gives  a 
surplus  of  human  power  that  would  else  be  absorbed  in 
manual  occupations  ;  and  it    facilitates  the  development  of 


THE   TRAIhSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE   OF   FORCES.    221 

higher  kinds  of  activity ;  it  is  clear  that  these  social  forces 
which  are  directly  correlated  with  physical  forces  anciently 
derived  from  the  sun,  are  only  less  important  than  those 
whose  correlates  are  the  vital  forces  recently  derived  from  it. 

§  73.  Eegarded  as  an  induction,  the  doctrine  set  forth  in 
this  chapter  will  most  likely  he  met  by  a  demurrer.  Many 
who  admit  that  among  physical  phenomena  at  least,  trans- 
formation of  forces  is  now  established,  will  probably  say  that 
inquiry  has  not  yet  gone  far  enough  to  enable  us  to  predicate 
equivalence.  And  in  respect  of  the  forces  classed  as  vital, 
mental,  and  social,  the  evidence  assigned,  however  little  to  be 
explained  away,  they  will  consider  by  no  means  conclusive 
even  of  transformation,  much  less  of  equivalence. 

To  those  who  think  thus,  it  must  now  however  be  pointed 
out,  that  the  universal  truth  above  illustrated  under  its  various 
aspects,  is  a  necessary  corollary  from  the  persistence  of  force. 
Setting  out  with  the  proposition  that  force  can  neither  come 
into  existence,  nor  cease  to  exist,  the  several  foregoing 
general  conclusions  inevitably  follow.  Each  manifestation  of 
force  can  be  interpreted  only  as  the  effect  of  some  antecedent 
force :  no  matter  whether  it  be  an  inorganic  action,  an 
animal  movement,  a  thought,  or  a  feeling.  Either  this  must 
be  conceded,  or  else  it  must  be  asserted  that  our  successive 
states  of  consciousness  are  self- created.  Either  mental 
energies,  as  well  as  bodily  ones,  are  quantitatively  correlated 
to  certain  energies  expended  in  their  production,  and  to 
certain  other  energies  which  they  initiate  ;  or  else  nothing 
must  become  something  and  something  must  become  nothing 
The  alternatives  are,  to  deny  the  persistence  of  force,  or  to 
admit  that  every  physical  and  psychial  change  is  generated 
by  certain  antecedent  forces,  and  that  from  given  amounts  of 
such  forces  neither  more  nor  less  of  such  physical  and  psychial 
changes  can  result.  And  since  the  persistence  of  force,  being  a 
datum  of  consciousness,  cannot  be  denied,  its  unavoidable  corol- 
lary must  be  accepted.  This  corollary  cannot  indeed  be 


222  THE  TRANSFORMATION  AND  EQUIVALENCE  OP  FORCES. 

made  more  certain  by  accumulating  illustrations.  The  truth  as 
arrived  at  deductively,  cannot  be  inductively  confirmed.  For 
every  one  of  sucb  facts  as  tbose  above  detailed,  is  establisbed 
only  tbrough.  the  indirect  assumption  of  that  persistence  of 
force,  from  which  it  really  follows  as  a  direct  consequence. 
The  most  exact  proof  of  correlation  and  equivalence  which  it 
is  possible  to  reach  by  experimental  inquiry,  is  that  based  on 
measurement  of  the  forces  expended  and  the  forces  produced. 
But,  as  was  shown  in  the  last  chapter,  any  such  process  of 
measurement  implies  the  use  of  some  unit  of  force  which  is 
assumed  to  remain  constant ;  and  for  this  assumption  there 
can  be  no  warrant  but  that  it  is  a  corollary  from  the  persist- 
ence of  force.  How  then  can  any  reasoning  based  on  this 
corollary,  prove  the  equally  direct  corollary  that  when  a  given 
quantity  of  force  ceases  to  exist  under  one  form,  an  equal 
quantity  must  come  into  existence  under  some  other  form  or 
forms  ?  Clearly  the  a  priori  truth  expressed  in  this  last 
corollary,  cannot  be  more  firmly  established  by  any  a  pos- 
teriori proofs  which  the  first  corollary  helps  us  to. 

"  What  then,''  it  may  be  asked,  "  is  the  use  of  these  investi- 
gations by  w^hich  transformation  and  equivalence  of  forces  is 
sought  to  be  established  as  an  inductive  truth?  Surely  it 
will  not  be  alleged  that  they  are  useless.  Yet  if  the  corre- 
lation cannot  be  made  more  certain  by  them  than  it  is  already, 
does  not  their  uselessness  necessarily  follow  ?"  No.  They  are 
of  value  as  disclosing  the  many  particular  implications  which 
the  general  truth  does  not  specify.  They  are  of  value  as 
teaching  us  how  much  of  one  mode  of  force  is  the  equivalent 
of  so  much  of  another  mode.  They  are  of  value  as  determin- 
ing under  what  conditions  each  metamorphosis  occurs.  And 
they  are  of  value  as  leading  us  to  inquire  in  what  shape 
the  remnant  of  force  has  escaped,  when  the  apparent  results 
are  not  equivalent  to  the  cause. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  DIRECTION   OF  MOTION. 

§  74.  The  Absolute  Cause  of  clianges,  no  matter  what  may 
be  tlieir  special  natures,  is  not  less  incompreliensiblc  in  respect 
of  the  unity  or  duality  of  its  action,  than  in  all  otber  respects. 
^ye  cannot  decide  between  the  alternative  suppositions,  that 
phenomena  are  due  to  the  variously- conditioned  workings  of  a 
single  force,  and  that  they  are  due  to  the  conflict  of  two  forces. 
Whether,  as  some  contend,  everything  is  explicable  on  the 
hypothesis  of  universal  pressure,  whence  what  we  call  tension 
results  differentially  from  inequalities  of  pressure  in  opposite 
directions ;  or  whether,  as  might  be  with  equal  propriety  con- 
tended, things  are  to  be  explained  on  the  hypothesis  of  uni- 
versal tension,  from  which  pressure  is  a  differential  result ;  or 
whether,  as  most  physicists  hold,  pressure  and  tension  every- 
where co-exist ;  are  questions  which  it  is  impossible  to  settle. 
Each  of  these  three  suppositions  makes  the  facts  comprehen- 
sible, only  by  postulating  an  inconceivability.  To  assume  a 
universal  pressure,  confessedly  requires  us  to  assume  an 
infinite  plenum — an  unlimited  space  full  of  something  which 
is  everj^where  pressed  by  something  beyond  ;  and  this 
assumption  cannot  be  mentally  realized.  That  imiversal 
tension  is  the  immediate  agency  to  which  phenomena  are 
due,  is  an  idea  open  to  a  parallel  and  equally  fatal  objection. 
And  however  verbally  intelligible  may  be  the  proposition  that 
pressure  and  tension  everywhere  co-exist,  yet  we  cannot  truly 


224  THE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTION. 

represent  to  ourselves  one  ultimate  unit  of  matter  as  drawing 
another  while  resisting  it. 

Nevertheless,  this  last  belief  is  one  which  we  are  compelled 
to  entertain.  Matter  cannot  be  conceived  except  as  mani- 
festing forces  of  attraction  and  repulsion.  Body  is  dis- 
tinguished in  our  consciousness  from  Space,  by  its  opposition 
to«our  muscular  energies  ;  and  this  opposition  we  feel  imdcr 
the  twofold  form  of  a  cohesion  that  hinders  our  efforts  to 
rend,  and  a  resistance  that  hinders  our  efforts  to  compress. 
Without  resistance  there  can  be  merely  empty  extension. 
Without  cohesion  there  can  be  no  resistance.  Probably  this 
conception  of  antagonistic  forces,  is  originally  derived  from 
the  antagonism  of  our  flexor  and  extensor  muscles.  But  be 
this  as  it  may,  we  are  obliged  to  think  of  all  objects  as  made 
up  of  parts  that  attract  and  repel  each  other  ;  since  this  is  the 
form  of  our  experience  of  all  objects. 

By  a  higher  abstraction  results  the  conception  of  attractive 
and  repulsive  forces  pervading  space.  We  cannot  dissociate 
force  from  occupied  extension,  or  occupied  extension  from 
force  ;  because  we  have  never  an  immediate  consciousness  of 
either  in  the  absence  of  the  other.  Nevertheless,  we  have 
abundant  proof  that  force  is  exercised  through  what  ap- 
pears to  our  senses  a  vacuity.  Mentally  to  represent  this 
exercise,  we  are  hence  obliged  to  fill  the  apparent  vacuity 
with  a  species  of  matter — an  etherial  medium.  The  consti- 
tution we  assign  to  this  etherial  medium,  however,  like  the 
constitution  we  assign  to  solid  substance,  is  necessarily  an 
abstract  of  the  impressions  received  from  tangible  bodies. 
The  opposition  to  pressure  which  a  tangible  body  offers  to  us, 
is  not  shown  in  one  direction  only,  but  in  all  directions  ;  and 
so  likewise  is  its  tenacity.  Suppose  countless  lines  radiating 
from  its  centre  on  every  side,  and  it  resists  along  each  of  these 
lines  and  coheres  along  each  of  these  lines.  Hence  the 
constitution  of  those  ultimate  units  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  which  phenomena  are  interpreted.  Be  they  atoms 
of  ponderable  matter  or  moleculcp  of  ether,  the  properties  wo 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTION.  225 

conceive  them  to  possess  are  notlimg  else  than  these  per- 
ceptible properties  idealized.  Centres  of  force  attracting  and 
repelling  each  other  in  all  directions,  are  simply  insensible 
portions  of  matter  haying  the  endowments  common  to  sensi- 
ble portions  of  matter — endowments  of  which  we  cannot  by 
any  mental  effort  divest  them.  In  brief,  they  are  the  in- 
variable elements  of  the  conception  of  matter,  abstracted  from 
its  variable  elements — size,  form,  quality,  &c.  And  so  to 
interpret  manifestations  of  force  which  cannot  be  tactually 
experienced,  we  use  the  terms  of  thought  supplied  by  our 
tactual  experiences  ;  and  this  for  the  sufficient  reason  that  we 
must  use  these  or  none. 

After  all  that  has  been  before  shown,  and  after  the  hint 
given  above,  it  needa  scarcely  be  said  that  these  universally 
CO- existent  forces  of  attriaction  and  repulsion,  must  not  be 
taken  as  realities,  but  as  our  symbols  of  the  reality.  They 
are  the  forms  under  which  the  workings  of  the  Unknowable 
are  cognizable  by  us — modes  of  the  Unconditioned  as  pre- 
sented under  the  conditions  of  our  consciousness.  But  while 
knowing  that  the  ideas  thus  generated  in  us  are  not  absolutely 
true,  we  may  unreservedly  surrender  ourselves  to  them  as  re- 
latively true  ;  and  may  proceed  to  evolve  a  series  of  deduc- 
tions having  a  like  relative  truth. 

§  75.  From  universally  CO- existent  forces  of  attraction  and 
repulsion,  there  result  certain  laws  of  direction  of  all  move- 
ment. Where  attractive  forces  alone  are  concerned,  or 
rather  are  alone  appreciable,  movement  takes  place  in  the  di- 
rection of  their  resultant ;  which  may,  in  a  sense,  be  called  the 
line  of  greatest  traction.  Where  repulsive  forces  alone  are 
concerned,  or  rather  are  alone  appreciable,  movement  takes 
place  along  their  resultant ;  which  is  usually  known  as  the  lino 
of  least  resistance.  And  where  both  attractive  and  repulsive 
forces  are  concerned,  or  are  appreciable,  movement  takes 
place  along  the  resultant  of  all  the  tractions  and  resistances. 
Strictly  speaking,  this  last  is  the  sole  law;  since,  by  tlie 


22G  THE   DIRECTION    OF    MOTION 

hypotliesis,  both  forces  are  everywliere  in  action.  But 
very  frequently  the  one  kind  of  force  is  so  immensely  in 
excess  that  the  effect  of  the  other  kind  may  be'  left  out  of 
consideration.  Practically  we  may  say  that  a  body  falling 
to  the  Earth,  follows  the  line  of  greatest  traction ;  since, 
though  the  resistance  of  the  air  must,  if  the  body  be  irregular, 
cause  some  divergence  from  this  line,  (quite  perceptible  with 
feathers  and  leaves,)  yet  ordinarily  the  divergence  is  so  slight 
tliat  we  may  omit  it.  In  the  same  manner,  though  the  course 
taken  by  the  steam  from  an  exploding  boiler,  differs  somewhat 
from  that  which  it  would  take  were  gravitation  out  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  yet,  as  gravitation  affects  its  course  infinitesimally,  we  are 
justified  in  asserting  that  the  escaping  steam  follows  the  line  of 
least  resistance.  Motion  then,  we  may  say,  always  follows  the 
line  of  greatest  traction,  or  the  line  of  least  resistance,  or  the 
resultant  of  the  two  :  bearing  in  mind  that  though  the  last  is 
alone  strictly  true,  the  others  are  in  many  cases  sufficiently 
near  the  truth  for  practical  purposes. 

Movement  set  up  in  any  direction  is  itself  a  cause  of  further 
movement  in  that  direction,  since  it  is  the  embodiment  of  a 
surplus  force  in  that  direction.  This  holds  equally  with  the 
transit  of  matter  through  space,  the  transit  of  matter  through 
matter,  and  the  transit  through  matter  of  any  kind  of  vibra- 
tion. In  the  case  of  matter  moving  through  space,  this  prin- 
ciple is  expressed  in  the  law  of  inertia — a  law  on  which  the 
calculations  of  physical  astronomy  are  wholly  based.  In  the 
case  of  matter  moving  through  matter,  we  trace  the  same 
truth  under  the  familiar  experience  that  any  breach  made  by 
oiie  solid  through  another,  or  any  channel  formed  by  a  fluid 
tlirough  a  solid,  becomes  a  route  along  which,  other  things 
equal,  subsequent  movements  of  like  nature  take  place.  And 
in  the  case  of  motion  passing  through  matter  under  the  form 
of  an  impulse  communicated  from  part  to  part,  the  facts  of 
magnetization  go  to  show  that  the  establishment  of  imdula- 
tions  along  certain  lines,  determines  their  continuance  along 
those  lines. 


TIIE   DIRECnON   OF   MOTION.  227 

It  furtlier  follows  from  the  conditions,  tliat  the  direction  of 
movement  can  rarely  if  ever  be  perfectly  straight.  For 
matter  in  motion  to  pursue  continuously  the  exact  line  in 
which  it  sets  out,  the  forces  of  attraction  and  repulsion 
must  be  symmetrically  disposed  around  its  path  ;  and  the 
chances  against  this  are  infinitely  great.  The  impossibility 
of  making  an  absolutely  true  edge  to  a  bar  of  metal — the 
fact  that  all  which  can  be  done  by  the  best  mechanical  ap- 
pliances, is  to  reduce  the  irregularities  of  such  an  edge  to 
amounts  that  cannot  be  perceived  without  magnifiers — sufii- 
ciently  exemplifies  how,  in  consequence  of  the  iinsymmetrical 
distribution  of  forces  around  the  line  of  movement,  the  move- 
ment is  rendered  more  or  less  indirect.  It  may  be 
well  to  add  that  in  proportion  as  the  forces  at  work  are 
numerous  and  varied,  the  curve  a  moving  body  describes  is 
necessarily  complex  :  -s^dtness  the  contrast  between  the  flight 
of  an  arrow  and  the  gyrations  of  a  stick  tossed  about  by 
breakers. 

As  a  step  towards  unification  of  knowledge  we  have  now 
to  trace  these  general  laws  throughout  the  various  orders  of 
changes  which  the  Cosmos  exhibits.  Wehavetonote  how  every 
motion  takes  place  along  the  line  of  greatest  traction,  of  least 
resistance,  or  of  their  resultant ;  how  the  setting  up  of  motion 
along  a  certain  line,  becomes  a  cause  of  its  continuance  along 
that  line;  how,  nevertheless,  change  of  relations  to  external 
forces,  always  renders  this  Kne  indirect ;  and  how  tlie  degree 
of  its  indirectness  increases  with  every  addition  to  the  number 
of  influences  at  work. 

§  76.  If  we  assume  the  first  stage  in  nebular  condensation 
to  be  the  precipitation  into  flocculi  of  denser  matter  previously 
drffused  through  a  rarer  medium,  (a  supposition  both  physi- 
cally justified,  and  in  harmony  with  certain  astronomical  ob- 
Bervations,)  we  shall  find  that  nebular  motion  is  interpretable 
in  pursuance  of  the  above  general  laws.  Each  portion  of  such 
vapour-like  matter  must  begin  to  move  towards  the  common 


228  THE   DIRECTION    OF    MOTION. 

centre  of  gravity.  Tlie  tractive  forces  wliicli  would  of  them- 
selves carry  it  in  a  straight  line  to  the  centre  of  gravity,  are 
opposed  by  the  resistant  forces  of  the  medium  through 
which  it  is  drawn.  The  direction  of  movement  must  be  the 
resultant  of  these — a  resultant  which,  in  consequence  of  the 
unsymmctrical  form  of  the  flocculus,  must  be  a  curve  directed, 
not  to  the  centre  of  gravity,  but  towards  one  side  of  it.  And 
it  may  be  readily  shown  that  in  an  aggregation  of  such  floc- 
culi,  severally  thus  moving,  there  must,  by  composition  of 
forces,  eventually  result  a  rotation  of  the  whole  nebula  in  one 
direction. 

Merely  noting  this  hypothetical  illustration  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  how  the  law  applies  to  the  case  of  nebular  evolu- 
tion, supposing  it  to  have  taken  place,  let  us  pass  to  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  Solar  System  as  now  exhibited.-  Here  the 
general  principles  above  set  forth  are  every  instant  exempli- 
fied. Each  planet  and  satellite  has  a  momentum  which 
would,  if  acting  alone,  carry  it  forward  in  the  direction  it  is 
at  any  instant  pursuing.  This  momentum  hence  acts  as  a 
resistance  to  motion  in  any  other  direction.  Each  planet  and 
satellite,  however,  is  drawn  by  a  force  which,  if  unopposed, 
would  take  it  in  a  straight  line  towards  its  primary.  And  the 
resultant  of  these  two  forces  is  that  curve  which  it  describes — 
a  curve  manifestly  consequent  on  the  unsymmctrical  distribu- 
tion of  the  forces  around  its  path.  This  path,  when  more 
closely  examined,  supplies  us  with  further  illustrations.  For 
it  is  not  an  exact  circle  or  ellipse ;  which  it  would  be  were  the 
tangential  and  centripetal  forces  the  only  ones  concerned. 
Adjacent  members  of  the  Solar  System,  ever  varying  in  their 
relative  positions,  cause  what  we  call  perturbations ;  that  is, 
slight  divergences  in  various  directions  from  that  circle  or 
ellipse  which  the  two  chief  forces  would  produce.  These  per- 
turbations severally  show  us  in  minor  degrees,  how  the  line  of 
movement  is  the  resultant  of  all  the  forces  engaged ;  and  how 
this  iine  becomes  more  complicated  in  proportion  as  the 
forces  are  multiplied.  If  instead  of  the  motions  of  the 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTION.  229 

planets  and  satellites  as  wholes,  we  consider  the  motions  of 
their  parts,  we  meet  with  comparatively  complex  illustrations. 
Every  portion  of  the  Earth's  substance  in  its  daily  rotation, 
describes  a  curve  which  is  in  the  main  a  resultant  of  that 
resistance  which  checks  its  nearer  approach  to  the  centre  of 
gravity,  that  momentum  which  would  carry  it  off  at  a  tangent, 
and  those  forces  of  gravitation  and  cohesion  which  keep  it 
from  being  so  carried  off.  If  this  axial  motion  be  compounded 
with  the  orbital  motion,  the  course  of  each  part  is  seen  to  be 
a  much  more  involved  one.  And  we  find  it  to  have  a  still 
greater  complication  on  taking  into  account  that  lunar  attrac- 
tion which  mainly  produces  the  tides  and  the  precession  of 
the  equinoxes. 

§  77.  TVe  come  next  to  terrestrial  changes :  present  ones 
as  observed,  and  past  ones  as  inferred  by  geologists.  Let  us 
sot  out  with  the  hourly-occurring  alterations  in  the  Earth's 
atmosphere ;  descend  to  the  slower  alterations  in  progress  on 
its  surface ;  and  then  to  the  still  slower  ones  going  on  beneath. 

JMasses  of  air,  absorbing  heat  from  surfaces  warmed  by  the 
sun,  expand,  and  so  lessen  the  weight  of  the  atmospheric 
columns  of  which  they  are  parts.  Hence  they  offer  to  adjacent 
atmospheric  columns,  diminished  lateral  resistance ;  and  these, 
moving  in  the  directions  of  the  diminished  resistance,  displace 
the  expanded  air ;  while  this,  pursuing  an  upward  course,  dis- 
plays a  motion  along  that  line  in  which  there  is  least  pressure. 
When  again,  by  the  ascent  of  such  heated  masses  from  ex- 
tended areas  like  the  torrid  zone,  there  is  produced  at  the 
upper  surface  of  the  atmosphere,  a  protuberance  beyond  the 
limits  of  equilibrium — when  the  air  forming  this  protuber- 
ance begins  to  overflow  laterally  towards  the  poles  ;  it  does 
so  because,  while  the  tractive  force  of  the  Earth  is  nearly  the 
same,  the  lateral  resistance  is  greatly  diminished.  And 
throughout  the  course  of  each  current  thus  generated,  as  well 
as  throughout  the  course  of  each  counter- current  flowing  in- 
to the  vacuum  that  is  left,  the  direction  is  always  the  resultant 


230  THE    DIRECTION   OP    MOTION. 

of  the  Earth's  tractive  force  and  the  resistance  offered  bv  tho 
surrounding  masses  of  air  :  modified  only  by  conflict  with 
other  currents  similarly  determined,  and  by  collision  with 
prominences  on  the  Earth^s  crust.  The  movements 

of  water,  in  both  its  gaseous  and  liquid  states,  furnish  further 
examples.  In  conformity  with  the  mechanical  theory  of  heat, 
it  may  be  shown  that  evaporation  is  the  escape  of  particles  of 
water  in  the  direction  of  least  resistance  ;  and  that  as  the  re- 
sistance (which  is  due  to  the  pressure  of  the  water  diffused  in 
a  gaseous  state)  diminishes,  the  evaporation  increases.  Con- 
versely, that  rushing  together  of  particles  called  condensation, 
which  takes  place  when  any  portion  of  atmospheric  vapour 
has  its  temperature  much  lowered,  may  be  interpreted  as  a 
diminution  of  the  mutual  pressure  among  the  condensing 
particles,  while  the  pressure  of  surrounding  particles  remains 
the  same ;  and  so  is  a  motion  taking  place  in  the  direction  of 
lessened  resistance.  In  the  course  followed  by  the  resulting 
rain-drops,  we  have  one  of  the  simplest  instances  of  the  joint 
effect  of  the  two  antagonist  forces.  The  Earth's  attraction, 
and  the  resistance  of  atmospheric  currents  ever  varying  in 
direction  and  intensity,  give  as  their  resultants,  lines  which 
incline  to  the  horizon  in  countless  different  degrees  and  under- 
go perpetual  variations.  More  clearly  still  is  the  law  exem- 
plified by  these  same  rain-drops  when  they  reach  the  ground. 
In  the  course  they  take  while  trickling  over  its  surface,  in 
every  rill,  in  every  larger  stream,  and  in  every  river,  we  see 
them  descending  as  straight  as  the  antagonism  of  surround- 
ing objects  permits.  From  moment  to  moment,  the  motion 
of  water  towards  the  Earth's  centre  is  opposed  by  the  solid 
matter  around  and  under  it ;  and  from  moment  to  moment 
its  route  is  the  resultant  of  the  lines  of  greatest  traction  and 
least  resistance.  So  far  from  a  cascade  furnislimg,  as  it  seems 
to  do,  ah  exception,  it  furnishes  but  another  illustration.  For 
thousrh  all  solid  obstacles  to  a  vertical  fall  of  the  water  are 
removed,  yet  the  water's  horizontal  momentum  is  an  obstacle  ; 
and  the  parabola  in  which  the  stream  leaps  from  the  pro- 


TJIE    DIRECTION    OF    MOTION.  231 

jecting  ledge,  is  generated  by  tlie  combined  gravitation  and 
momentum.  It  may  be  well  just  to  draw  attention 

to  the  degree  of  complexity  here  produced  in  tbe  line  of 
movement  by  tbe  variety  of  forces  at  work.  In  atmospberio 
currents,  and  still  more  clearly  in  water-courses  (to  wbich 
migbt  be  added  ocean-streams),  tbe  route  followed  is  too  com- 
plex to  be  defined,  save  as  a  curve  of  three  dimensions  with 
an  ever  varying  equation. 

The  Earth's  solid  crust  undergoes  changes  that  supply  an- 
other group  of  illustrations.  The  denudation  of  lands  and 
the  depositing  of  the  removed  sediment  in  new  strata  at  the 
bottoms  of  seas  and  lakes,  is  a  process  throughout  which  mo- 
tion is  obviously  determined  in  the  same  way  as  is  that  of  the 
water  effecting  the  transport.  Again,  though  we  have  no 
direct  inductive  proof  that  the  forces  classed  as  igneous,  ex- 
pend themselves  along  lines  of  least  resistance  ;  yet  what  little 
we  know  of  them  is  in  harmony  with  the  belief  that  they  do 
so.  Earthquakes  continually  revisit  the  same  localities,  and 
special  tracts  undergo  for  long  periods  together  successive 
elevations  or  subsidences, — facts  which  imply  that  already- 
fractured  portions  of  the  Earth's  crust  are  those  most  prone 
to  yield  under  the  pressure  caused  by  further  contractions. 
The  distribution  of  volcanoes  along  certain  lines,  as  well  as 
the  frequent  recurrence  of  eruptions  from  the  same  vents, 
are  facts  of  like  meaning. 

§  78.  That  organic  growth  takes  place  in  the  direction  of 
least  resistance,  is  a  proposition  that  has  been  set  forth  and 
illustrated  by  Mr.  James  Hinton,  in  the  Medico- Chirurgical 
Revieio  for  October,  1858.  After  detailing  a  few  of  the  early 
observations  which  led  him  to  this  generalization,  he  for- 
mulates it  thus : — 

"  Organic  form  is  the  result  of  motion." 
"  Motion  takes  the  direction  of  least  resistance." 
"Therefore  organic  form  is  the  result  of  motion  in  the 
direction  of  least  resistance.'* 


232  THE   DIRECTION    OF    MOTION. 

After  an  elucidation  and  defence  of  this  position,  Mr. 
Hinton  proceeds  to  interpret,  in  conformity  with  it,  sun- 
dry phenomena  of  development.  Speaking  of  plants  he 
says : — 

"  The  formation  of  the  root  furnishes  a  beautiful  illustra- 
tion of  the  law  of  least  resistance,  for  it  grows  by  insinuating 
itself,  cell  by  cell,  through  the  interstices  of  the  soil ;  it  is  by 
such  minute  additions  that  it  increases,  winding  and  twisting 
whithersoever  the  obstacles  it  meets  in  its  path  determine,  and 
growing  there  most,  where  the  nutritive  materials  are  added 
to  it  most  abundantly.  As  we  look  on  the  roots  of  a  mighty 
tree,  it  appears  to  us  as  if  they  had  forced  themselves  with 
giant  violence  into  the  solid  earth.  But  it  is  not  so ;  they 
were  led  on  gently,  cell  added  to  cell,  softly  as  the  dews  de- 
scended, and  the  loosened  earth  made  way.  Once  formed,  in- 
deed, they  expand  with  an  enormous  power,  but  the  spongy 
condition  of  the  growing  radicles  utterly  forbids  the  supposi- 
tion that  they  are  forced  into  the  earth.  Is  it  not  probable, 
indeed,  that  the  enlargement  of  the  roots  already  formed  may 
crack  the  surrounding  soil,  and  help  to  make  the  interstices 
into  which  the  new  rootlets  grow  ?  "         *  *         * 

"  Throughout  almost  the  whole  of  organic  nature  the  spiral 
form  is  more  or  less  distinctly  marked.  Now,  motion  under 
resistance  takes  a  spiral  direction,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  mo- 
tion of  a  body  rising  or  falling  through  water.  A  bubble 
rising  rapidly  in  water  describes  a  spiral  closely  resembling 
a  corkscrew,  and  a  body  of  moderate  specific  gravity  dropped 
into  water  may  be  seen  to  fall  in  a  curved  direction,  the 
spiral    tendency    of   which    may    be    distinctly    observed 

*  *  *  In  this  prevailing  spiral  form  of  organic 
bodies,  therefore,  it  appears  to  me,  that  there  is  presented  a 
strong  prima  facie  case  for  the  view  I  have  maintained. 

*  *  *  The  spiral  form  of  the  branches  of  many 
trees  is  very  apparent,  and  the  universally  spiral  arrangement 
of  the  leaves  around  the  stem  of  plants  needs  only  to  be  refen-ed 
fco.         *         *         *        The  heart  commences  as  a  spiral  turn, 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTION.  233 

and  in  its  perfect  form  a  manifest  spiral  may  be  traced  through 
the  left  ventricle,  right  ventricle,  right  auricle,  left  auricle 
and  appendix.  And  what  is  the  spiral  turn  in  which  the 
heart  commences  but  a  necessary  result  of  the  lengthening, 
under  a  limit,  of  the  cellular  mass  of  which  it  then  con- 
sists?"        »         ♦         * 

^^  Every  one  must  have  noticed  the  peculiar  curling  up  of 
the  young  leaves  of  the  common  fern.  The  appearance  is  a3 
if  the  leaf  were  rolled  up,  but  in  truth  this  form  is  merely  a 
phenomenon  of  growth.  The  curvature  results  from  the  in- 
crease of  the  leaf,  it  is  only  another  form  of  the  wrinkling  up, 
or  turning  at  right  angles  by  extension  under  limit." 

"  The  rolling  up  or  imbrication  of  the  petals  in  many  flower- 
buds  is  a  similar  thing ;  at  an  early  period  the  small  petals 
may  be  seen  lying  side  by  side,  afterwards  growing  within  the 
capsule,  they  become  folded  round  one  another."       *       ♦       * 

"  If  a  flower-bud  be  opened  at  a  sufficiently  early  period, 
the  stamens  will  be  found  as  if  moulded  in  the  cavity  between 
the  pistil  and  the  corolla,  which  cavity  the  anthei'S  exactly 
fill ;  the  stalks  lengthen  at  an  after  period.  I  have  noticed 
also  in  a  few  instances,  that  in  those  flowers  in  which  the 
petals  are  imbricated,  or  twisted  together,  the  pistil  is  taper- 
ing as  growing  up  between  the  petals ;  in  some  flowers  which 
have  the  petals  so  arranged  in  the  bud  as  to  form  a  dome  (as 
the  hawthorn;  e.  g.),  the  pistil  is  flattened  at  the  apex,  and 
in  the  bud  occupies  a  space  precisely  limited  by  the  stamens 
below,  and  the  enclosing  petals  above  and  at  the  sides.  I 
have  not,  however,  satisfied  myself  that  this  holds  good  in  all 
cases." 

Without  endorsing  all  'Mr,  Hinton's  illustrations,  to 
some  of  which  exception  might  be  taken,  his  conclusioa 
may  be  accepted  as  a  large  instalment  of  the  truth.  It  is, 
however,  to  be  remarked,  that  in  the  case  of  organic  growth, 
as  in  all  other  cases,  the  line  of  movement  is  in  strictness 
the  resultant  of  tractive  and  resistant  forces;  and  that 
the  tractive  forces   here  form  so  considerable   an   element 


234  THE   DIRECTION    OF   MOTION. 

that  the  formula  is  scarcely  complete  without  them.  The 
shapes  of  plants  are  manifestly  modified  by  grayitalion : 
the  direction  of  each  branch  is  not  what  it  would  have  been 
were  the  tractive  force  of  the  Earth  absent ;  and  every  flower 
and  leaf  is  somewhat  altered  in  the  course  of  development  by 
the  weight  of  its  parts.  Though  in  animals  such  eficcts  are 
less  conspicuous,  yet  the  instances  in  which  flexible  organs 
have  their  directions  m  great  measure  determined  by  gravity, 
justify  the  assertion  that  throughout  the  whole  organism  the 
forms  of  parts  must  be  affected  by  this  force. 

The  organic  movements  which  constitute  growth,  are  not, 
however,  the  only  organic  movements  to  be  interpreted. 
There  are  also  those  which  constitute  function.  And  through- 
out these  the  same  general  principles  are  discernible.  That 
the  vessels  along  which  blood,  lymph,  bile,  and  all  the 
secretions,  find  their  ways,  are  channels  of  least  resistance, 
is  a  fact  almost  too  conspicuous  to  be  named  as  an  illustration. 
Less  conspicuous,  however,  is  the  truth,  that  the  currents  set- 
ting along  these  vessels  are  affected  by  the  tractive  force  of 
the  Earth :  witness  varicose  veins ;  witness  the  relief  to  an 
inflamed  part  obtained  by  raising  it ;  witness  the  congestion 
of  head  and  face  produced  by  stooping.  And  in  the  fact  that 
dropsy  in  the  legs  gets  greater  by  day  and  decreases  at  night, 
while,  conversely,  that  cedematous  fullness  under  the  eyes 
common  in  debility,  grows  worse  during  the  hours  of  reclin- 
ing and  decreases  after  getting  up,  shows  us  how  the  trans- 
udation of  fluid  through  the  walls  of  the  capillaries,  varies  ac- 
cording as  change  of  position  changes  the  effect  of  gravity  in 
diffisrent  parts  of  the  'body. 

It  may  be  well  in  passing  just  to  note  the  bearing  of  the 
principle  on  the  development  of  species.  From  a  dynamic 
point  of  view, ''  natural  selection  "  implies  structural  changes 
along  lines  of  least  resistance.  The  multiplication  of  any  kind 
of  plant  or  animal  in  localities  that  are  favourable  to  it,  is  a 
growth  where  the  antagonistic  forces  are  less  than  elsewhere. 
And  the  preservation  of  varieties  that  succeed  better  than  their 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTION.  235 

ftUies  ID  coping  with  surrounding  conditions,  is  the  continu- 
ance of  vital  movement  in  those  directions  where  the  obstacles 
to  it  are  most  eluded. 

§  79.  Throughout  the  phenomena  of  mind  the  law  enunci- 
ated is  not  so  readily  established.  In  a  large  part  of  them, 
as  those  of  thought  and  emotion,  there  is  no  perceptible  move- 
ment. Even  in  sensation  and  volition,  which  show  us  in  one 
part  of  the  body  an  effect  produced  by  a  force  applied  to  an- 
other part,  the  intermediate  movement  is  inferential  rather 
than  visible.  Such  indeed  are  the  difficulties  that  it  is  not 
possible  here  to  do  more  than  briefly  indicate  the  proofs  which 
might  be  given  did  space  permit. 

Supposing  the  various  forces  throughout  an  organism  to  be 
previously  in  equilibrium,  then  any  part  which  becomes  the 
.^eat  of  a  further  force,  added  or  liberated,  must  be  one  from 
which  the  force,  being  resisted  by  smaller  forces  around,  will 
initiate  motion  towards  some  other  part  of  the  organism.  If 
elsewhere  in  the  organism  there  is  a  point  at  which  force  is 
being  expended,  and  which  so  is  becoming  minus  a  force  which 
it  before  had,  instead  of  plus  a  force  which  it  before  had  not, 
and  thus  is  made  a  point  at  which  the  re-action  against  sur- 
rounding forces  is  diminished ;  then,  manifestly,  a  motion  tak- 
ing place  between  the  first  and  the  last  of  these  points  is  a 
motion  along  the  line  of  least  resistance.  I^ow  a  sensation 
implies  a  force  added  to,  or  evolved  in,  that  part  of  the  organ- 
ism which  is  its  seat ;  while  a  mechanical  movement  implies 
an  expenditure  or  loss  of  force  in  that  part  of  the  organism 
which  is  its  seat.  Hence  if,  as  we  find  to  be  the  fact,  motion  is 
habitually  propagated  from  those  parts  of  an  organism  to  which 
the  external  world  adds  forces  in  the  shape  of  nervous  impres- 
«ions,  to  those  parts  of  an  organism  which  react  on  the  external 
world  through  muscular  contractions,  it  is  simply  a  fulfil- 
ment of  the  law  above  enunciated.  From  this  general 
conclusion  we  may  pass  to  a  more  special  one.  When  there 
is  anything  in  the  circumstances  of  an  animal's  life,  involving 


236  THE   DIRECTION    OF    MOTION. 

that  a  sensation  in  one  particular  place  is  habitually  followed 
bj?"  a  contraction  in  another  particular  place — when  there  is 
thus  a  frequently-repeated  motion  through  the  organism  be- 
tween these  places  ;  what  must  be  the  result  as  respects  the 
line  along  which  the  motions  take  place  ?  Restoration  of  equi- 
librium between  the  points  at  which  the  forces  have  been 
increased  and  decreased,  must  take  place  through  some  chan- 
nel. If  this  channel  is  affected  by  the  discharge — if  the 
obstructive  action  of  the  tissues  traversed,  involves  any 
reaction  upon  them,  deducting  from  their  obstructive 
power ;  then  a  subsequent  motion  between  these  two  points 
will  meet  with  less  resistance  along  this  channel  than  the  pre- 
vious motion  met  with ;  and  will  consequently  take  this 
channel  still  more  decidedly.  If  so,  every  repetition  will  still 
further  diminish  the  resistance  offered  by  this  route;  and 
hence  will  gradually  be  formed  between  the  two  a  permanent 
line  of  communication,  differing  greatly  from  the  surrounding 
tissue  in  respect  of  the  ease  with  which  force  traverses  it.  "We 
see,  therefore,  that  if  between  a  particular  impression  and  a 
particular  motion  associated  with  it,  there  is  established  a 
connexion  producing  what  is  called  reflex  action,  the  law  that 
motion  follows  the  line  of  least  resistance,  and  that,  if  the 
conditions  remain  constant,  resistance  in  any  direction  is  dimin- 
ished by  motion  occurring  in  that  direction,  supplies  an  expla- 
nation. Without  further  details  it  will  be  manifest  that 
a  like  interpretation  may  be  given  to  the  succession  of  all 
other  nervous  changes.  If  in  the  surrounding  world  there 
are  objects,  attributes,  or  actions,  that  usually  occur  together, 
the  effects  severally  produced  by  them  in  the  organism  will  be- 
come so  connected  by  those  repetitions  which  we  call  experience, 
that  they  also  will  occur  together.  In  proportion  to  the  fre- 
quency with  which  any  external  connexion  of  phenomena  is 
experienced,  will  be  the  strength  of  the  answering  internal  con- 
nexion of  nervous  states.  Thus  there  will  arise  all  degrees  of 
cohesion  among  nervous  states,  as  there  are  all  degrees  of  com- 
monness among  the  surrounding  co-existences  and  sequences 


THE    DIRECTION    OF   MOTION.  237 

that  generate  tliem :  whence  must  result  a  general  correspond- 
ence between  associated  ideas  and  associated  actions  in  the 
environment.* 

The  relation  between  emotions  and  actions  may  be  similarly 
construed.  As  a  first  illustration  let  us  observe  what  happens 
with  emotions  that  are  undirected  by  volitions.  These,  like 
feelings  in  general,  expend  themselves  in  generating  organic 
changes,  and  chiefly  in  muscular  contractions.  As  was 
pointed  out  in  the  last  chapter,  there  result '  movements  of 
the  involuntar}^  and  voluntary  muscles,  that  are  great  in  pro- 
portion as  the  emotions  are  strong.  It  remains  here  to  be 
pointed  out,  however,  that  the  order  in  which  these  muscles 
are  affected,  is  explicable  only  on  the  principle  above  set  forth. 
Thus,  a  pleasurable  or  painful  state  of  mind  of  but  slight 
intensity,  does  little  more  than  increase  the  pulsations  of  the 
heart.  Why  ?  For  the  reason  that  the  relation  between 
nervous  excitement  and  vascular  contraction,  being  common 
to  every  genus  and  species  of  feeling,  is  the  one  of  most 
frequent  repetition  ;  that  hence  the  nervous  connexion  is,  in 
the  way  above  shown,  the  one  which  offers  the  least  resistance 
to  a  discharge  ;  and  is  therefore  the  one  along  which  a  feeble 
force  produces  motion.  A  sentiment  or  passion  that  is  some- 
what stronger,  affects  not  only  the  heart  but  the  muscles  of 
the  face,  and  especially  those  around  the  mouth.  Here  the 
like  explanation  applies;  since  these  muscles,  being  both  com- 
paratively small,  and,  for  purposes  of  speech,  pei-petually 
used,  offer  less  resistance  than  other  voluntary  muscles 
to  the  nervo-motor  force.  By  a  further  increase  of  emotion 
the  respiratory  and  vocal  muscles  become  perceptibly  excited. 
Finally,  under  strong  passion,  the  muscles  in  general  of  the 
trunk  and  limbs  are  violently  contracted.  Without  sapng 
that  the  facts  can  be  thus  interpreted  in  all  their  details  (a 

•  This  paragraph  is  a  re-statement,  somewhat  amplified,  of  an  idea  set  forth  iu 
the  Medico-Chirurgical  Review  for  January,  1859  (pp.  189.  and  190) ;  and  con- 
tains the  germ  of  the  intended  fifth  part  of  the  Principles  of  Psychology,  which 
was  withheld  for  the  reasons  given  in  the  preface  to  that  work 


238  THE   DIRECTION    OF    MOTION. 

task  requiring  data  impossible  to  obtain)  it  may  be  safely  said 
that  tbe  order  of  excitation  is  from  muscles  that  are  small  and 
frequently  acted  on,  to  tbose  whicli  are  larger  and  less  fre- 
quently acted  on.  The  single  instance  of  laughter,  which  is 
an  undirected  discharge  of  feeling  that  afiects  first  the 
muscles  round  the  mouth,  then  those  of  the  vocal  and  respir- 
atory apparatus,  then  those  of  the  limbs,  and  then  those  of 
the  spine ;  *  suffices  to  show  that  when  no  special  route  is 
opened  for  it,  a  force  evolved  in  the  nervous  centres  produces 
motion  along  channels  which  offer  the  least  resistance,  and  if 
it  is  too  great  to  escape  by  these,  produces  motion  along 
channels  offering  successively  greater  resistance. 

Probably  it  will  be  thought  impossible  to  extend  this 
reasoning  so  as  to  include  volitions.  Yet  we  are  not  without 
evidence  that  the  transition  from  special  desires  to  special 
muscular  acts,  conforms  to  the  same  principle.  It  may  be 
shown  that  the  mental  antecedents  of  a  voluntary  movement, 
are  antecedents  which  temporarily  make  the  line  along  which 
this  movement  takes  place,  the  line  of  least  resistance.  For 
a  volition,  suggested  as  it  necessarily  is  by  some  previous 
thought  connected  with  it  by  associations  that  determine  the 
transition,  is  itself  a  representation  of  the  movements  that  are 
willed,  and  of  their  sequences.  But  to  represent  in  conscious- 
ness certain  of  our  own  movements,  is  partially  to  arouse  the 
sensations  accompanying  such  movements,  inclusive  of  those 
of  muscular  tension — is  partially  to  excite  the  appropriate 
motor-nerves  and  all  the  other  nerves  implicated.  That  is  to 
say,  the  volition  is  itself  an  incipient  discharge  along  a  lino 
which  previous  experiences  have  rendered  a  line  of  least  re- 
sistance. And  the  passing  of  volition  into  action  is  simply  a 
completion  of  the  discharge. 

One  corollary  from  this  must  be  noted  before  proceeding  ; 
namely,  that  the  particular  set  of  muscular  movements  bj 
ivhich  any  object  of  desire  is  reached,  are  movements  imply- 

•  For  details  see  a  paper  on  "  Tlie  Physiology  of  Laughter,"  publifihed  In 
MaemCllan's  Magazine  for  March  1860. 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTIOX.  239 

ing  the  smallest  total  of  forces  to  be  overcome.  As  each  feel- 
ing generates  motion  along  the  line  of  least  resistance,  it  is 
tolerably  clear  that  a  group  of  feelings,  constituting  a  more 
or  less  complex  desire,  will  generate  motion  along  a  series  of 
lines  of  least  resistance.  That  is  to  say,  the  desired  end  will 
be  achieved  with  the  smallest  expenditure  of  effort.  Should 
it  be  objected  that  through  want  of  knowledge  or  want  of 
skill,  a  man  often  pursues  the  more  laborious  of  two  courses, 
and  so  overcomes  a  larger  total  of  opposing  forces  than  was 
necessary ;  the  reply  is,  that  relatively  to  his  mental  state  the 
course  he  takes  is  that  which  presents  the  fewest  difficulties. 
Though  there  is  another  which  in  the  abstract  is  easier,  yet 
his  ignorance  of  it,  or  inability  to  adopt  it,  is,  physically  con- 
sidered, the  existence  of  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  dis- 
charge of  his  energies  in  that  direction.  Experience  obtained 
by  himself,  or  communicated  by  others,  has  not  established 
in  him  such  channels  of  nervous  communication  as  are  re- 
quired to  make  this  better  course  the  course  of  least  re- 
sistance to  him. 

§  80.  As  in  individual  animals,  inclusive  of  man,  motion 
follows  lines  of  least  resistance,  it  isto  be  inferred  that  amon^ 
aggregations  of  men,  the  like  wiU  hold  good.  The  changes 
in  a  society,  being  due  to  the  joint  actions  of  its  members,  the 
courses  of  such  changes  will  be  determined  as  are  those  of  all 
other  changes  wrought  by  composition  of  forces. 

Thus  when  we  contemplate  a  society  as  an  organism,  and 
observe  the  direction  of  its  growth,  we  find  this  direction  to 
be  that  in  which  the  average  of  opposing  forces  is  the  least. 
Its  units  have  energies  to  be  expended  in  self-maintenance 
and  reproduction.  These  energies  are  met  by  various 
environing  energies  that  are  antagonistic  to  them — those  of 
geological  origin,  those  of  climate,  of  wild  animals,  of  other 
human  races  with  whom  they  are  at  enmity  or  in  competi- 
tion. And  the  tracts  the  society  spreads  over,  are  those  in 
which  there  is  the  smallest  total  antagonism.     Or,  reducing 


240  THE    DIRECTION    OF    MOTION. 

the  matter  to  its  ultimate  terms,  we  may  say  that  these  social 
units  have  jointly  and  severally  to  preserve  themselves  and 
their  offspring  from  those  inorganic  and  organic  forces  which 
are  ever  tending  to  destroy  them  (either  indirectly  by  oxi- 
dation and  by  undue  abstraction  of  heat,  or  directly  by  bodily 
mutilation)  ;  that  these  forces  are  either  counteracted  by 
others  which  are  available  in  the  shape  of  food,  clothing, 
habitations,  and  appliances  of  defence,  or  are,  as  far  as  may 
be,  eluded ;  and  that  population  spreads  in  whichever  di- 
rections there  is  the  readiest  escape  from  these  forces,  or  the 
least  exertion  in  obtaining  the  materials  for  resisting  them, 
or  both.  For  these   reasons  it   happens  that  fertile 

valleys  where  water  and  vegetal*  produce  abound,  are  early 
peopled.  Sea-shores,  too,  supplying  a  large  amount  of  easily- 
gathered  food,  are  lines  along  which  mankind  have  common- 
ly spread.  The  general  fact  that,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from 
the  traces  left  by  them,  large  societies  first  appeared  in  those 
tropical  regions  where  the  fruits  of  the  earth  are  obtainable 
with  comparatively  little  exertion,  and  where  the  cost  of 
maintaining  bodily  heat  is  but  slight,  is  a  fact  of  like  mean- 
ing. And  to  these  instances  may  be  added  the  allied  one 
daily  furnished  by  emigration ;  which  we  see  going  on  to- 
wards countries  presenting  the  fewest  obstacles  to  the 
self-preservation  of  individuals,  and  therefore  to  national 
growth.  Similarly  with  that  resistance  to  the  move- 

ments of  a  society  which  neighbouring  societies  oiffer.  Each 
of  the  tribes  or  nations  inhabiting  any  region,  increases  in 
numbers  until  it  outgrows  its  means  of  subsistence.  In  each 
there  is  thjas  a  force  ever  pressing  outwards  on  to  adjacent 
areas — a  force  antagonized  by  like  forces  in  the  tribes  or 
nations  occupying  those  areas.  And  the  ever-recurring  wars 
that  result — the  conquests  of  weaker  tribes  or  nations,  and 
the  over-running  of  their  territories  by  the  victors,  are 
instances  of  social  movements  taking  place  in  the  directions 
of  least  resistance.  Nor  do  the  conquered  peoples,  when 
they  escape  extermination  or  enslavement,  fail  to  show  us 


THE    DIRECTION    OF    MOTION.  21 J 

movements  that  are  similarly  determined.  For  migrating  as 
they  do  to  less  fertile  regions — taking  refuge  in  deserts  or 
among  mountains — moving  in  a  direction  where  the  re- 
sistance to  social  growth  is  comparatively  great ;  they  still  do 
this  only  under  an  excess  of  pressure  in  all  other  directions  : 
the  physical  obstacles  to  self-preservation  they  encounter, 
being  really  less  than  the  obstacles  offered  by  the  enemies 
from  whom  they  fly. 

Internal  social  movements  may  also  be  thus  interpreted. 
Localities  naturally  fitted  for  producing  particular  commodi- 
ties— that  is,  localities  in  which  such  commodities  are  got  at 
the  least  cost  of  force — that  is,  localities  in  which  the  desires 
for  these  commodities  meet  with  the  least  resistance  ;  become 
localities  especially  devoted  to  the  obtainment  of  these  com- 
modities. Where  soil  and  climate  render  wheat  a  profitable 
crop,  or  a  crop  from  which  the  greatest  amount  of  life-sustain- 
ing power  is  gained  by  a  given  quantity  of  effort,  the  growth 
of  wheat  becomes  the  dominant  industry.  "Where  wheat  can- 
not be  economicall}'-  produced,  oats,  or  rye,  or  maize,  or  rice, 
or  potatoes,  is  the  agricultural  staple.  Along  sea-shores  men 
support  themselves  with  least  effort  by  catching  fish ;  and 
hence  choose  fishing  as  an  occupation.  And  in  places  that 
are  rich  in  coal  or  metallic  ores,  the  population,  finding  that 
f  labour  devoted  to  the  raisin <>  of  these  materials  bringfs  a 
'  larger  return  of  food  and  clothing  than  when  otherwise  di- 
rected, becomes  a  population  of  miners.  This  last 
instance  introduces  us  to  the  phenomena  of  exchange  ;  which 
equally  illustrate  the  general  law.  For  the  practice  of 
barter  begins  as  soon  as  it  facilitates  the  fulfilment  of  men's 
^  desires,  by  diminishing  the  exertion  needed  to  reach  the  ob- 
jects of  those  desires.  When  instead  of  growing  his  own 
corn,  weaving  his  own  cloth,  sewing  his  own  shoes,  each  man 
began  to  confine  himself  to  farming,  or  weaving,  or  shoemak- 
ing;  it  was  because  each  found  it  more  laborious  to  make 
everything  he  wanted,  than  to  make  a  great  quantity  of  one 
thing  and  barter  the  surplus  for  the  rest :  by  exchange,  each 
12 


242  THE    DIRECTION    OF    MOTION. 

procured  tlie  necessaries  of  life  without  encountering  so  mucli 
resistance.  Moreover,  in  deciding  what  commodity  to  pro- 
duce, each  citizen  was,  as  he  is  at  the  present  day,  guided  in 
the  same  manner.  For  besides  those  local  conditions  which 
determine  whole  sections  of  a  society  towards  the  industries 
easiest  for  them,  there  are  also  individual  conditions  and  indi- 
vidual aptitudes  which  to  each  citizen  render  certain  occupa- 
tions preferable ;  and  in  choosing  those  forms  of  activity 
which  their  special  circumstances  and  faculties  dictate, 
these  social  units  are  severally  moving  towards  the  objects 
of  their  desires  in  the  directions  which  present  to  them  the 
fewest  obstacles.  The  process  of  transfer  which  com- 

merce pre-supposes,  supplies  another  series  of  examples.  So 
long  as  the  forces  to  be  overcome  in  procuring  any  necessary 
of  life  in  the  district  where  it  is  consumed,  are  less  than  tlie 
forces  to  be  overcome  in  procuring  it  from  an  adjacent  dis- 
trict, exchange  does  not  take  place.  But  when  the  adjacent 
district  produces  it  with  an  economy  that  is  not  out-balanced 
by  cost  of  transit — when  the  distance  is  so  small  and  the 
route  so  easy  that  the  labour  of  conveyance  plus  the  labour 
of  production  is  less  than  the  labour  of  production  in  the  con- 
suming district,  transfer  commences.  Movement  in  the  di- 
rection of  least  resistance  is  also  seen  in  the  establishment  of 
the  channels  along  which  intercourse  takes  place.  At  the 
outset,  when  goods  are  carried  on  the  backs  of  men  and 
horses,  the  paths  chosen  are  those  which  combine  shortness 
with  levelness  and  freedom  from  obstacles — those  which  are 
achieved  with  the  smallest  exertion.  And  in  the  subsequent 
formation  of  each  highway,  the  course  taken  is  that  which 
deviates  horizontally  from  a  straight  line  so  far  only  as  is 
needful  to  avoid  vertical  deviations  entailing  greater  labour 
in  drauffht.  The  smallest  total  of  obstructive  forces  deter- 
mines  the  route,  evan  in  seemingly  exceptional  cases ;  aa 
where  a  detour  is  made  to  avoid  the  opposition  of  a  land- 
owner. All  subsequent  improvements,  ending  in  macada- 
mized roads,   canals,   and  railways,   which   reduce   the  an- 


THE    DIUECTION    OF    MOTION.  243 

tagonlsm  of  friction  and  gravity  to  a  minimum,  exemplify 
-the  same  truth.  After  there  comes  to  be  a  choice  of  roads 
between  one  point  and  another,  we  still  see  that  the  road 
chosen  is  that  along  which  the  cost  of  transit  is  the  least : 
cost  being  the  measure  of  resistance.  Even  where,  time  being 
a  consideration,  the  more  expensive  route  is  followed,  it  is  so 
because  the  loss  of  time  involves  loss  of  force.  When, 

di\dsion  of  labour  having  been  carried  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent and  means  of  communication  made  easy,  there  arises  a 
marked  localization  of  industries,  the  relative  growths  of  the 
populations  devoted  to  them  may  be  interpreted  on  the  same 
principle.  The  influx  of  people  to  each  industrial  centre,  as 
well  as  the  rate  of  multiplication  of  those  already  inhabiting 
it,  is  determined  by  the  payment  for  labour  ;  that  is — by  the 
quantity  of  commodities  which  a  given  amount  of  effort  will 
obtain.  To  say  that  artisans  flock  to  places  where,  in  conse- 
quence of  faciKties  for  production,  an  extra  proportion  of  pro- 
duce can  be  given  in  the  shape  of  wages ;  is  to  say  that  they 
flock  to  places  where  there  are  the  smallest  obstacles  to  the 
support  of  themselves  and  families.  Hence,  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  number  which  occurs  in  such  places,  is  really  a 
social  growth  at  points  where  the  opposing  forces  are  the 
least. 

Nor  is  the  law  less  clearly  to  be  traced  in  those  functional 
changes  daily  going  on.  The  flow  of  capital  into  businesses 
yielding  the  largest  returns  ;  the  buying  in  the  cheapest 
market  and  selling  in  the  dearest ;  the  introduction  of  more 
economical  modes  of  manufacture ;  the  development  of  better 
agencies  for  distribution  ;  and  all  those  variations  in  the 
currents  of  trade  that  are  noted  in  our  newspapers  and  tele- 
grams from  hour  to  hour ;  exhibit  movement  taking  place  in 
directions  where  it  is  met  by  the  smallest  total  of  opposing 
forces.  For  if  we  analyze  each  of  these  changes — if  instead 
of  interest  on  capital  we  read  surplus  of  products  which  re- 
mains after  maintenance  of  labourers;  if  we  so  interpret 
large  interest  or  large  surplus  to  imply  labour  expended  with 


244  THE    DIRECTION   OF   MOTION. 

the  greatest  results  ;  and  if  labour  expended  with  the  greatest 
results  means  muscular  action  so  directed  as  to  evade  ob- 
stacles as  far  as  possible  ;  we  see  that  all  these  commercial 
phenomena  are  complicated  motions  set  up  along  lines  of 
least  resistance. 

Objections  of  two  opposite  kinds  will  perhaps  be  made  to 
these  sociological  applications  of  the  law.  By  some  it  may 
be  said  that  the  term  force  as  here  used,  is  used  metaphori- 
cally— that  to  speak  of  men  as  impelled  in  certain  directions 
by  certain  desires,  is  a  figure  of  speech  and  not  the  statement 
of  a  physical  fact.  The  reply  is,  that  the  foregoing  illustra- 
tions are  to  be  interpreted  literally,  and  that  the  processes  de- 
scribed are  physical  ones.  The  pressure  of  hunger  is  an 
actual  force — a  sensation  implying  some  state  of  nervous  ten- 
sion ;  and  the  muscular  action  which  the  sensation  prompts 
is  really  a  discharge  of  it  in  the  shape  of  bodily  motion — a 
discharge  which,  on  analyzing  the  mental  acts  involved,  will 
be  found  to  follow  lines  of  least  resistance.  Hence  the 
motions  of  a  society  whose  members  are  impelled  by  this  or 
any  other  desire,  are  actually,  and  not  metaphorically,  to  be 
understood  in  the  manner  shown.  An  opposite  ob- 

jection may  possibly  be,  that  the  several  illustrations  given 
are  elaborated  truisms  ;  and  that  the  law  of  direction  of  mo- 
tion being  once  recognized,  the  fact  that  social  movements, 
in  common  with  all  others,  must  conform  to  it,  follows  inevit- 
ably. To  this  it  may  be  rejoined,  that  a  mere  abstract  asser- 
tion that  social  movements  must  do  this,  would  carry  no  con- 
viction to  the  majority  ;  and  that  it  is  needful  to  show  Jiow 
they  do  it.  For  social  phenomena  to  be  unified  with  pheno- 
mena of  simpler  kinds,  it  is  requisite  that  such  generaliza- 
tions as  those  of  political  economy  shall  bo  reduced  to  equi- 
valent propositions  expressed  in  terms  of  force  and  motion. 

Social  movements  of  these  various  orders  severally  conform 
to  the  two  derivative  principles  named  ut  the  outset.  In  the 
first  place  we  may  observe  how,  once  set  up  in  given  di- 
r<3ctions,  such  movements,  like  all  others,  tend  to  continue  in 


TIIE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTION.  245 

these  directions.  A  commercial  mania  or  panic,  a  current 
of  commodities,  a  social  custom,  a  political  agitation,  or  a 
popular  delusion,  maintains- its  course  for  a  longtime  after  ita 
original  source  Las  ceased ;  and  requires  antagonistic  forces 
<o  arrest  it.  In  tlie  second  place  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in 
proportion  to  the  complexity  of  social  forces  is  the  tortuous- 
aess  of  social  movements.  The  involved  series  of  muscular 
contractions  gone  through  by  the  artizan,  that  he  may  get 
the  wherewithal  to  buy  a  loaf  lying  at  the  baker's  next  door, 
show  us  how  extreme  becomes  the  indirectness  of  motion 
when  the  agencies  at  work  become  very  numerous — a  truth 
still  better  illustrated  by  the  more  public  social  actions ;  as " 
those  which  end  in  bringing  a  successful  man  of  business, 
towards  the  close  of  his  life,  into  parliament. 

§  81.  And  now  of  the  general  truth  set  forth  in  this 
chapter,  as  of  that  dealt  with  in  the  last,  let  us  ask — what  is 
our  ultimate  evidence  ?  Must  we  accept  it  simply  as  an  em- 
pirical generalization  ?  or  may  it  be  established  as  a  corollary 
from  a  still  deeper  truth  ?  The  reader  will  anticipate  the 
answer.  We  shall  find  it  deducible  from  that  datum  of 
consciousness  which  underlies  all  science. 

Suppose  several  tractive  forces,  variously  directed,  to  be  act- 
ing on  a  given  body.  By  what  is  known  among  mathema- 
ticians as  the  composition  of  forces,  there  may  be  found  for 
any  two  of  these,  a  single  force  of  such  amount  and  direction 
as  to  produce  on  the  body  an  exactly  equal  effect.  If  in  the 
direction  of  each  of  them  there  be  drawn  a  straight  Hne, 
and  if  the  lengths  of  these  two  straight  lines  be  made  pro- 
portionate to  the  amounts  of  the  forces ;  and  if  from  the  end 
of  each  Kne  there  be  drawn  a  line  parallel  to  the  other,  so 
as  to  complete  a  parallelogram  ;  then  the  diagonal  of  this 
parallelogram  represents  the  amount  and  direction  of  a  force 
that  is  equivalent  to  the  two.  Such  a  resultant  force,  as  it  is 
called,  may  be  found  for  any  pair  of  forces  throughout  the 
group.     Similarly,  for  any  pair  of  such  resultants  a  single 


246  THE   DIRECTION   OF   MOTION. 

resultant  may  be  found.  And  by  repeating  this  course,  all  of 
tbem  may  be  reduced  to  two.  If  these  two  are  equal  and 
opposite — that  is,  if  there  is  no  line  of  greatest  traction, 
motion  does  not  take  place.  If  they  are  opposite  but  not 
equal,  motion  takes  place  in  the  direction  of  the  greater. 
And  if  they  are  neither  equal  nor  opposite,  motion  takes 
place  in  the  direction  of  their  resultant.  For  in  either  of 
these  cases  there  is  an  unantagonized  force  in  one  direction. 
And  this  residuary  force  that  is  not  neutralized  by  an  oppos- 
ing one,  must  move  the  body  in  the  direction  in  which  it  is 
acting.  To  assert  the  contrary  is  to  assert  that  a  force  can 
be  expended  without  effect — without  generating  an  equiva- 
lent force ;  and  by  so  implying  that  force  can  cease  to  exist, 
this  involves  a  denial  of  the  persistence  of  force.  It 

needs  scarcely  be  added  that  if  in  place  of  tractions  we  take 
resistances,  the  argument  equally  holds  ;  and  that  it  holds  also 
where  both  tractions  and  resistances  are  concerned.  Thus 
the  law  that  motion  follows  the  line  of  greatest  traction,  or 
the  line  of  least  resistance,  or  the  resultant  of  the  two,  is  a 
necessary  deduction  from  that  primordial  truth  which  tran- 
scends proof. 

Reduce  the  proposition  to  its  simplest  form,  and  it  becomes 
still  more  obviously  consequent  on  the  persistence  of  force. 
Suppose  two  weights  suspended  over  a  pulley  or  from  the  ends 
of  an  equal- armed  lever ;  or  better  still — suppose  two  men 
pulling  against  each  other.  In  such  cases  we  say  that  the 
heavier  weight  will  descend,  and  that  the  stronger  man 
will  draw  the  weaker  towards  him.  But  now,  if  we  are  asked 
how  we  know  which  is  the  heavier  weight  or  the  stronger 
man  ;  we  can  only  reply  that  it  is  the  one  producing  motion 
in  the  direction  of  its  pull.  Our  only  evidence  of  excess  of 
force  is  the  movement  it  produces.  But  if  of  two  opposing 
tractions  we  can  know  one  as  greater  than  the  other  only  by 
the  motion  it  generates  in  its  own  direction,  then  the  assertion 
that  motion  occurs  in  the  direction  of  greatest  traction  is  u 
truism.     When,  going  a  step  further  back,  we  seek  a  warrant 


THE   UIRECrriON   OF   MOTION.  247 

for  the  assumption  that  of  the  two  conflicting  forces,  that  ia 
the  greater  which  produces  motion  in  its  own  direction,  we 
find  no  other  than  the  consciousness  that  such  part  of  the 
greater  force  as  is  unneutralized  by  the  lesser,  must  produce 
its  effect — the  consciousness  that  this  residuary  force  cannot 
disappear,  but  must  manifest  itself  in  some  equivalent  change 
— the  consciousness  that  force  is  persistent.  Here  too, 

as  before,  it  may  be  remarked  that  no  amount  of  varied  illus- 
trations, like  those  of  which  this  chapter  mainly  consists,  can 
give  greater  certainty  to  the  conclusion  thus  immediately 
drawn  from  the  ultimate  datum  of  consciousness.  For  in  all 
cases,  as  in  the  simple  ones  just  given,  we  can  identify  the 
greatest  force  only  by  the  resulting  motion.  It  is  impossible 
for  us  ever  to  get  evidence  of  the  occurrence  of  motion  in  any 
other  direction  than  that  of  the  greatest  force ;  since  our 
measure  of  relative  greatness  among  forces  is  their  relative 
power  of  generating  motion.  And  clearly,  while  the  compara- 
tive greatness  of  forces  is  thus  determined,  no  multiplication 
of  instances  can  add  certainty  to  a  law  of  direction  of  move- 
ment which  follows  immediately  from  the  persistence  of  force. 
From  this  same  primordial  truth,  too,  may  be  deduced  the 
principle  that  motion  once  set  up  along  any  line,  becomes  it- 
self a  cause  of  subsequent  motion  along  that  line.  The  me- 
chanical axiom  that,  if  left  to  itself,  matter  moving  in  any  di- 
rection win  continue  in  that  direction  with  undiminished 
velocity,  is  but  an  indirect  assertion  of  the  persistence  of 
force ;  since  it  is  an  assertion  that  the  force  manifested  in 
the  transfer  of  a  body  along  a  certain  length  of  a  certain 
line  in  a  certain  time,  cannot  disappear  without  producing 
some  equal  manifestation — a  manifestation  which,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  conflicting  forces,  must  be  a  further  transfer  in  the 
same  direction  at  the  same  velocity.  In  the  case  of 

matter  traversing  matter  the  like,  inference  is  necessitated. 
Here  indeed  the  actions  are  much  more  complicated..  A  liquid 
that  follows  a  certain  channel  through  or  over  a  solid,  as  water 
along  the  Earth's  surface,  loses  part  of  its  motion  in  the  shape 


248  THE   BIRECTION   OF    MOTION. 

of  heat,  througli  friction  and  collision  with,  the  matters  form* 
ing  its  bed.  A  further  amount  of  its  motion  may  be  absorbed 
in  overcoming  forces  which  it  liberates ;  as  when  it  loosens  a 
mass  which  falls  into,  and  blocks  np,  its  channel.  But  after 
these  deductions  by  transformation  into  other  modes  of  force, 
any  further  deduction  from  the  motion  of  the  water  is  at  the 
expense  of  a  reaction  on  the  channel,  which  by  so  much  di- 
minishes its  obstructive  power :  such  reaction  being  shown  in 
the  motion  acquired  by  the  detached  portions  which  are  car- 
ried away.  The  cutting  out  of  river-courses  is  a  perpetual 
illustration  of  this  truth.  Still  more  involved  is  the 

case  of  motion  passing  through  matter  by  impulse  from  part 
to  part ;  as  a  nervous  discharge  through  animal  tissue.  Some 
chemical  change  may  be  wrought  along  the  route  traversed, 
which  may  render  it  less  fit  than  before  for  conveying  a  current. 
Or  the  motion  may  itself  be  in  part  metamorphosed  into  some 
obstructive  form  of  force ;  as  in  metals,  the  conducting  power 
of  which  is,  for  the  time,  decreased  by  the  heat  which  the 
passage  of  electricity  itself  generates.  The  real  question  is, 
however,  what  structural  modification,  if  any,  is  produced 
throughout  the  matter  traversed,  apart  from  incidental  dis- 
turbing forces — apart  from  everything  but  the  necessary  re- 
sistance of  the  matter :  that,  namely,  which  results  from  the 
inertia  of  its  units.  If  we  confine  our  attention  to  that 
part  of  the  motion  which,  escaping  transformation,  continues 
its  course,  then  it  is  a  corollary  from  the  persistence  of 
force  that  as  much  of  this  remaining  motion  as  is  taken 
up  in  changing  the  positions  of  the  units,  must  leave  these  by 
so  much  less  able  to  obstruct  subsequent  motion  in  the  same 
direction. 

Thus  in  all  the  changes  heretofore  and  at  present  displayed 
by  the  Solar  System ;  in  all  those  that  have  gone  on  and  are 
still  going  on  in  the  Earth's  crust ;  in  all  processes  of  organic 
development  and  function;  in  all  mental  actions  and  the 
effects  they  work  on  the  body ;  and  in  all  modifications  of 
structure  and  activity  in  societies ;  the  implied  movements  are 


THE  DIEECTION  OP  MOTION.  249 

of  necessity  determined  in  tlie  manner  above  set  forth. 
Wlierever  we  see  motion^  its  direction  must  be  tbat  of  tbo 
greatest  force.  Wlierever  we  see  the  greatest  force  to  b^ 
acting  in  a  given  direction^  in  that  direction  motion  must 
ensue.  These  arc  not  truths  holding  only  of  one  class,  or  of 
some  classes,  of  phenomena ;  but  they  are  among  those 
universal  truths  by  wliich  our  knowledge  of  phenomena  in 
general  is  uni^edi 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  RHYTHM   OF   MOTION. 

§  82.  When  the  pennant  of  a  vessel  lying  becalmed  first 

bhows  the  coming  breeze,  it  does  so  by  gentle  undulations 

that  travel  from  its  fixed  to  its  free  end.     Presently  the  sails 

begin  to  flap  ;  and  their  blows  against  the  mast  increase  in 

rapidity  as  the  breeze  rises.*    Even  when,  being  fully  bellied 

out,  they  are  in  great  part  steadied  by  the  strain  of  the  yards 

and  cordage,  their  free   edges  tremble  with  each   stronger 

gust.     And  should  there  come  a  gale,  the  jar  that  is  felt  on 

laying  hold  of  the  shrouds  shows  that  the  rigging  vibrates  ; 

while  the  rush  and  whistle  of  the  wind  prove  that  in  it,  also, 

rapid  undulations  are  generated.   Ashore  the  conflict  between 

the  current  of  air  and  the  things  it  meets  results  in  a  like 

rhythmical  action.     The  leaves  all  shiver  in  the  blast ;  each 

branch  oscillates ;  and  every  exposed  tree  sways  to  and  fro. 

The  blades  of  grass  and  dried  bents  in  the  meadows,  and  still 

better  the  stalks  in  the  neighbouring  corn-fields,  exhibit  the 

same  rising  and  falling  movement.     Nor  do  the  more  stable 

objects  fail  to  do  the  like,  though  in  a  less  manifest  fashion ; 

as  witness  the  shudder  that  may  be  felt  throughout  a  house 

during  the  paroxysms  of  a  violent  storm.  Streams  of 

water  produce  in  opposing  objects  the  same  general  efiects  as 

do  streams  of  air.     Submerged  weeds  growing  in  the  middle 

of  a  brook,  undulate  from  end  to  end.     Branches  brought 

down  by  the  last  flood,  and  left  entangled  at  the  bottom 


THE   RHYTHM   OF  MOTION.  251 

where  tlie  current  is  rapid,  are  tkrown  into  a  stale  of  up  and 
down  movement  that  is  slow  or  quick  in  proportion  as  they 
are  large  or  small ;  and  where,  as  in  great  rivers  like  the 
Mississippi,  whole  trees  are  thus  held,  the  name  "  sawyers," 
by  which  they  are  locally  known,  sufficiently  describes  the 
rhythm  produced  in  them.  Note  again  the  effect  of  the 
antagonism  between  the  current  and  its  chanuel.  In  shallow 
places,  where  the  action  of  the  bottom  on  the  water  flowing 
over  it  is  visible,  we  see  a  ripple  produced — a  series  of  undula- 
tions. And  if  we  study  the  action  and  re-action  going  on 
between  the  moving  fluid  and  its  banks,  we  still  find  tho 
principle  illustrated,  though  in  a  different  way.  For  in  every 
rivulet,  as  in  the  mapped-out  course  of  every  great  river,  the 
bends  of  the  stream  from  side  to  side  throughout  its  tortuous 
course  constitute  a  lateral  undulation — an  undulation  so  in- 
evitable that  even  an  artificially  straightened  channel  is 
eventually  changed  into  a  serpentine  one.  Analogous  phe- 
nomena may  be  observed  where  the  water  is  stationary  and 
the  solid  matter  moving.  A  stick  drawn  laterally  through 
the  water  with  much  force,  proves  by  the  throb  which  it 
communicates  to  the  hand  that  it  is  in  a  state  of  vibration. 
Even  where  the  moving  body  is  massive,  it  only  requires  that 
great  force  should  be  applied  to  get  a  sensible  effect  of  like 
kind :  instance  the  screw  of  a  screw-steamer,  which  instead 
of  a' smooth  rotation  falls  into  a  rapid  rhythm  that  sends  a 
tremor  through  the  whole  vessel.  The  sound  which 

results  when  a  bow  is  drawn  over  a  vioKn-string,  shows  us 
vibrations  produced  by  the  movement  of  a  solid  over  a  solid. 
In  lathes  and  planing  machiues,  the  attempt  to  take  off  a 
thick  shaving  causes  a  violent  jar  of  the  whole  apparatus,  and 
the  production  of  a  series  of  waves  on  the  iron  or  wood  that 
is  cut.  Every  boy  in  scraping  his  slate-pencil  finds  it 
scarcely  possible  to  help  making  a  ridged  surface.  If  you 
roll  a  ball  along  the  ground  or  over  the  ice,  there  is  always 
more  or  less  up  and  down  movement — a  movement  that  is 
visible  while  the  velocity  is   considerable,  but  becomes  too 


252  THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION. 

email  and  r^pid  to  be  seen  by  tbe  unaided  eye  as  tbe  velocity 
diminisbes.  However  smootb  tbe  rails,  and  bowever  per- 
fectly built  tbe  carriages,  a  railway- train  inevitably  gets  into 
oscillations,  botb  lateral  and  vertical.  Even  wbere  moving 
matter  is  suddenly  arrested  by  collision,  tbe  law  is  still  illus- 
trated ;  for  botb  tbe  body  striking  and  tbe  body  struck  are 
made  to  tremble;  and  trembling  is  rbytbmical  movement. 
Little  as  we  babitually  observe  it,  it  is  yet  certain  tbat  tbe 
impulses  our  actions  impress  from  moment  to  moment  on 
surrounding  objects,  are  propagated  tbrougb  tbem  in  vibra- 
tions. It  needs  but  to  look  tbrougb  a  telescope  of  bigb 
power,  to  be  convinced  tbat  eacb  pulsation  of  tbe  beart  gives 
a  jar  to  tbe  whole  room.  If  we  pass  to  motions  of 

anotber  order — tbose  namely  wbicb  take  place  in  tbe  etberial 
medium — we  still  find  tbe  same  tbing.  Every  fresb  dis- 
covery confirms  tbe  bj^potbesis  tbat  ligbt  consists  of  undula- 
tions. Tbe  rays  of  beat,  too,  are  now  found  to  bave  a  like 
fundamental  nature  :  tbeir  undulations  differing  from  tbose 
of  ligbt  only  in  tbeir  comparative  lengths.  Nor  do  tbe  move- 
ments of  electricity  fail  to  furnisb  us  witb  an  illustration  ; 
tbougb  one  of  a  difierent  order.  Tbe  northern  aurora  may 
often  be  observed  to  pulsate  witb  waves  of  greater  brightness ; 
and  the  electric  discharge  through  a  vacuum  shows  us  by  its 
stratified  appearance  tbat  tbe  current  is  not  uniform,  but 
comes  in  gushes  of  greater  and  lesser  intensity.  .   Should 

it  be  said  that  at  any  rate  there  are  some  motions,  as  those  of 
projectiles,  which  are  not  rhythmical,  the  reply  is,  that  the 
exception  is  apparent  only ;  and  that  these  motions  would  be 
rhythmical  if  they  were  not  interrupted.  It  is  common  to 
assert  tbat  the  trajectory  of  a  cannon  ball  is  a  parabola  ;  and 
it  is  true  that  (omitting  atmospheric  resistance)  tbe  curve  de- 
scribed differs  so  slightly  from  a  parabola  that  it  may  practi- 
cally be  regarded  as  one.  But,  strictly  speaking,  it  is  a  por- 
tion of  an  extremely  eccentric  ellipse,  having  the  Earth's 
centre  of  gravity  for  its  remoter  focus  ;  and  but  for  its  arrest 
by  tbe  ^ibstance  of  the  Earth,  tbe  cannon  ball  would  travel 


THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION.  25o 

round  tliat  focus  and  return  to  tlie  point  whence  it  started  ; 
again  to  repeat  this  slow  rhytlim.  Indeed,  while  seeming  at 
first  sight  to  do  the  reverse,  the  discharge  of  a  cannon 
furnishes  one  of  the  best  illustrations  of  the  principle  enunci- 
ated. The  explosion  produces  yiolent  undulations  in  the 
surrounding  air.  The  whizz  of  the  shot,  as  it  flies  towards 
its  mark,  is  due  to  another  series  of  atmospheric  undulations, 
i^  nd  the  movement  to  and  from  the  Earth's  centre,  which  the 
cannon  hall  is  beginning  to  perform,  being  checked  by  solid 
matter,  is  transformed  into  a  rhythm  of  another  order ; 
namely,  the  vibration  which  the  blow  sends  through  neigh- 
bouring bodies.* 

Rhythm  is  very  generally  not  simple  but  compound. 
There  are  usually  at  work  various  forces,  causing  undulations 
differing  in  rapidity  ;  and  hence  it  continually  happens  that 
besides  the  primary  rhythms  there  are  secondary  rhythms, 
produced  by  the  periodic  coincidence  and  antagonism  of  the 
primary  ones.  Double,  triple,  and  even  quadruple  rhythms, 
are  thus  generated.  One  of  the  simplest  instances  is  afforded 
by  what  in  acoustics  are  known  as  "beats  :"  recurring  inter- 
vals of  sound  and  silence  which  are  perceived  when  two  notes 
of  nearly  the  same  pitch  are  struck  together  ;  and  which  are 
due  to  the  alternate  correspondence  and  antagonism  of  tlie 
atmospheric  waves.  In  like  manner  the  various  phenomena 
due  to  what  is  called  interference  of  light,  severally  result 
from  the  periodic  agreement  and  disagreement  of  etherial 
undulations — undulations  which,  by  alternately  intensi- 
fying and  neutralizing  each  other,  produce  intervals  of 
increased  and  diminished  light.  On  the  sea-shore  may  be 
noted  sundry  instances  of  compound  rhythm.  "We  have 
that  of  the  tides,  in  which  the  daily  rise  and  fall  under- 
goes a  fortnightly  increase  and  decrease,  due  to  the  alter- 
nate  coincidence  and   antagonism   of  the  solar   and  lunar 

*  After  having  for  some  years  supposed  myself  alone  in  the  helief  that  all  mo- 
rion is  rhythmical,  I  discovered  that  my  Mend  Professor  Tyndall  also  held  thia 
doctrine. 


254  I^IE    RHYTHM   OF    MOTION. 

attractions.  We  have  again  that  which  is  perpetually 
furnished  by  the  surface  of  the  sea  :  every  large  wave  bear- 
ing smaller  ones  on  its  sides,  and  these  still  smaller  ones  ; 
with  the  result  that  each  flake  of  foam,  along  with  the  por- 
tion of  water  bearing  it,  undergoes  minor  ascents  and  descents 
of  several  orders  while  it  is  being  raised  and  lowered  by  the 
greater  billows.  A  quite  different  and  very  interesting 
example  of  compound  rhythm,  occurs  in  the  little  riUs  which, 
at  low  tide,  run  over  the  sand  out  of  the  shingle  banks  above. 
AVliere  the  channel  of  one  of  these  is  narrow,  and  the  stream 
runs  strongly,  the  sand  at  the  bottom  is  raised  into  a  series 
of  ridges  corresponding  to  the  ripple  of  the  water.  On 
watching  for  a  short  time,  it  will  be  seen  that  these  ridges 
are  being  raised  higher  and  the  ripple  growing  stronger  ; 
until  at  length,  the  action  becoming  violent,  the  whole  series 
of  ridges  is  suddenly  swept  away,  the  stream  runs  smoothly, 
and  the  process  commences  afresh.  Instances  of  still  more 
complex  rhythms  might  be  added  ;  but  they  will  come  more 
appropriately  in  connexion  with  the  several  kinds  of  cosmical 
changes,  hereafter  to  be  dealt  with. 

From  the  ensemble  of  the  facts  as  above  set  forth,  it  will  be 
seen  that  rhythm  results  wherever  there  is  a  conflict  of  forces 
not  in  equilibrium.  If  the  antagonist  forces  at  any  point  are 
balanced,  there  is  rest ;  and  in  the  absence  of  motion  there 
can  of  course  be  no  rhythm.  But  if  instead  of  a  balance 
there  is  an  excess  of  force  in  one  direction — if,  as  necessarily 
follows,  motion  is  set  up  in  that  direction ;  then  for  that 
motion  to  continue  imiformly  in  that  direction,  it  is  requisite 
that  the  moving  matter  should,  notwithstanding  its  unceasing 
change  of  place,  present  unchanging  relations  to  the  sources 
of  force  by  which  its  motion  is  produced  and  opposed.  This 
however  is  impossible.  Every  further  transfer  through  space 
must  alter  the  ratio  between  the  forces  concerned — must  in- 
crease or  decrease  the  predominance  of  one  force  over  the 
other — must  prevent  uniformity  of  movement.  And  if  the 
movement  cannot  be  uniform,  then,  in  the  absence  of  accelera- 


THE   RHYTHM   OF   M0TI02i.  255 

tion  or  retardation  continued  through,  infinite  time  and  space, 
(results  which  cannot  be  conceived)  the  only  alternative  is 
rhythni. 

A  secondary  conclusion  must  not  be  omitted.  In  the  last 
chapter  we  saw  that  motion  is  never  absolutely  rectilinear ; 
and  here  it  remains  to  be  added  that,  as  a  consequence,  rhythm 
is  necessarily  incomplete.  A  truly  rectilinear  rhythm  can 
arise  only  when  the  opposing  forces  are  in  exactly  the  same 
line  ;  and  the  probabilities  against  this  are  infinitely  great. 
To  generate  a  perfectly  circular  rhythm,  the  two  forces  con- 
cerned must  be  exactly  at  right  angles  to  each  other,  and 
must  have  exactly  a  certain  ratio  ;  and  against  this  the  pro- 
babilities are  likewise  infinitely  great.  All  other  proportions 
and  directions  of  the  two  forces  will  produce  an  ellipse  of 
greater  or  less  eccentricity.  And  when,  as  indeed  always 
happens,  above  two  forces  are  engaged,  the  curve  described 
must  be  more  complex ;  and  cannot  exactly  repeat  itself.  So 
that  in  fact  throughout  nature,  this  action  and  re- action  of 
forces  never  brings  about  a  complete  return  to  a  previous 
state.  Where  the  movement  is  much  involved,  and  especially 
where  it  is  that  of  some  aggregate  whose  units  are  partially 
independent,  anything  like  a  regular  curve  is  no  longer 
traceable ;  we  see  nothing  more  than  a  general  oscillation. 
And  .on  the  completion  of  any  periodic  movement,  the  degree 
in  which  the  state  arrived  at  difiers  from  the  state  de- 
parted from,  is  usually  marked  in  proportion  as  the  influences 
at  work  are  numerous. 

§  83.  That  spiral  arrangement  so  general  among  the  more 
diffused  nebulae — an  arrangement  which  must  be  assumed  by 
matter  moving  towards  a  centre  of  gravity  through  a  resist- 
ing medium — shows  us  the  progressive  establishment  of 
revolution,  and  therefore  of  rhythm,  in  those  remote  spaces 
which  the  nebula3  occupy.  Double  stars,  moving  round  com- 
mon centres  of  gravity  in  periods  some  of  which  are  now 
ascertained,  exhibit  settled  rhythmical  actions  in  distant  partd 


25« 


THE   RHYTHM   OF   MOTION. 


of  our  siderial  system.  And  another  fact  which,  though  of  a 
different  order,  has  a  like  general  significance,  is  furnished  b^ 
variable  stars — stars  which  alternately  brighten  and  fade. 

The  periodicities  of  the  planets,  satellities,  and  comets,  are 
so  familiar  that  it  would  be.  inexcusable  to  name  them,  were 
it  not  needful  here  to  point  out  that  they  are  so  many  grand 
illustrations  of  this  general  law  of  movement.  But  besides 
the  revolutions  of  these  bodies  in  their  orbits  (all  more  or  less 
cxcentric)  and  their  rotations  on  their  axes,  the  Solar  System 
presents  us  with  various  rhythms  of  a  less  manifest  and  more 
complex  kind.  In  each  planet  and  satellite  there  is  the  revo- 
lution of  the  nodes — a  slow  change  in  the  position  of  the 
orbit-plane,  which  after  completing  itself  commences  afresh. 
There  is  the  gradual  alteration  in  the  length  of  the  axis 
major  of  the  orbit;  and  also  of  its  excentricity :  both  of 
which  are  rhythmical  alike  in  the  sense  that  they  alternate 
between  maxima  and  minima,  and  in  the  sense  that  the  pro- 
gress from  one  extreme  to  the  other  is  not  uniform,  but  is 
made  with  fluctuating  velocity.  Then,  too,  there  is  the  revo- 
lution of  the  line  of  apsides,  which  in  course  of  time  moves 
round  the  heavens — not  regularly,  but  through  complex 
oscillations.  And  further  we  have  variations  in  the  directions 
of  the  planetary  axes — that  known  as  nutation,  and  that 
larger  gyration  which,  in  the  case  of  the  Earth,  causes  the 
precession  of  the  equinoxes.  These  rhythms,  already 

more  or  less  compound,  are  compounded  with  each  other. 
Such  an  instance  as  the  secular  acceleration  and  retardation 
of  the  moon,  consequent  on  the  varying  excentricity  of  the 
Earth's  orbit,  is  one  of  the  simplest.  Another,  having  more 
important  consequences,  results  from  the  changing  direction 
of  the  axes  of  rotation  in  planets  whose  orbits  are  decidedly 
exccntric.  Every  planet,  during  a  certain  long  period,  pre- 
sents more  of  its  northern  than  of  its  southern  hemisphere  to 
the  sun,  at  the  time  of  its  nearest  approach  to  him  ;  and  then 
again,  during  a  like  period,  presents  more  of  its  southern 
hemisphere  than  of  its  northern — a  recurring  coincidence 


THE    RHYTHM   OF   MO  HON.  '257 

whicli,  thougli  causing  in  some  planets  no  sensible  alterations 
of  climate,  involves  in  the  case  of  the  Earth  an  epoch  of 
21,000  years,  during  which  each  hemisphere  goes  through  a 
cjTle  of  temperate  seasons,  and  seasons  that  are  extreme  in 
their  heat  and  cold.  Nor  is  this  all.  There  is  even  a  varia- 
tion of  this  variation.  For  the  summers  and  winters  of  the 
whole  Earth  become  more  or  less  strongly  contrasted,  as  the 
excentricity  of  its  orbit  increases  and  decreases.  Hence 
during  increase  of  the  excentricity,  the  epochs  of  moderately 
contrasted  seasons  and  epochs  of  strongly  contrasted  seasons, 
through  which  alternately  each  hemisphere  passes,  must  grow 
more  and  more  different  in  the  degrees  of  their  contrasts ; 
and  contrariwise  during  decrease  of  the  excentricity.  So 
that  in  the  quantity  of  light  and  heat  which  any  portion  of 
the  Earth  receives  from  the  sun,  there  goes  on  a  quadruple 
rh^i:hm :  that  of  day  and  night ;  that  of  summer  and  win- 
ter ;  that  due  to  the  changing  position  of  the  axis  at  perihe- 
lion and  aphelion,  taking  21,000  years  to  complete ;  and  that 
involved  by  the  variation  of  the  orbit's  excentricity,  gono 
through  in  millions  of  years. 

§  84.  Those  terrestrial  processes  whose  dependence  on  the 
fiolar  heat  is  direct,  of  course  exhibit  a  rhythm  that  corre- 
sponds to  the  periodically  changing  amount  of  heat  which 
each  part  of  the  Earth  receives.  The  simplest,  though  the 
least  obtrusive,  instance  is  supplied  by  the  magnetic  variations. 
In  these  there  is  a  diurnal  increase  and  decrease,  an  annual 
increase  and  decrease,  and  a  decennial  increase  and  decrease  ; 
the  latter  answering  to  a  period  during  which  the  solar  spots 
become  alternately  abundant  and  scarce  :  besides  which  known 
variations  there  are  probably  others  corresponding  with  the 
astronomical  cycles  just  described.  More  obvious  examples 
are  furnished  by  the  movements  of  the  ocean  and  the  atmo- 
sphere. Marine  currents  from  the  equator  to  the  poles  above, 
and  from  the  poles  to  tho  equator  beneath,  show  us  an  un- 
ceasing backward  and  forward  motion  throughout  this  vast 


258  THE   RHYTHM  .OF   MOTIOX. 

mass  of  water — a  motion  varying  in  amount  according  to  the 
seasons,  and  compounded  with,  smaller  like  motions  of  local 
origin.  The  similarly-caused  general  currents  in  the  air,  have 
similar  annual  variations  similarly  modified.  Irregular  aa 
they  are  in  detail,  we  still  see  in  the  monsoons  and  other  tropi- 
cal atmospheric  disturbances,  or  even  in  our  own  equinoctial 
gales  and  spring  east  winds,  a  periodicity  sufficiently  decid- 
ed. Again,  we  have  an  alternation  of  times  during 
which  evaporation  predominates  with  times  during  which  con- 
densation predominates :  shown  in  the  tropics  by  strongly 
marked  rainy  seasons  and  seasons  of  drought,  and  in  the 
temperate  zones  by  corresponding  changes  of  which  the  pe- 
riodicity, though  less  definite,  is  still  traceable.  The  difiusion 
and  precipitation  of  water,  besides  the  slow  alternations 
answering  to  different  parts  of  the  year,  furnish  us  with  ex- 
amples of  rhythm  of  a  more  rapid  kind.  During  wet 
weather,  lasting,  let  us  say,  over  some  weeks,  the  tendency 
^o  condense,  though  greater  than  the  tendency  to  evaporate, 
does  not  show  itself  in  continuous  rain ;  but  the  period  is 
made  up  of  rainy  days  and  days  that  are  wholly  or  partially 
fair.  Nor  is  it  in  this  rude  alternation  only  that  the  law  is 
manifested.  During  any  day  throughout  this  wet  weather  a 
minor  rhythm  is  traceable  ;  and  especially  so  when  the  ten- 
dencies to  evaporate  and  to  condense  are  nearly  balanced. 
Among  mountains  this  minor  rhythm  and  its  causes  may  be 
studied  to  great  advantage.  Moist  winds,  which  do  not  pre- 
cipitate their  contained  water  in  passing  over  the  compara- 
tively warm  lowlands,  lose  so  much  heat  when  they  reach 
the  cold  mountain  peaks,  that  condensation  rapidly  takes 
place.  Water,  however,  in  passing  from  the  gaseous  to  the 
fluid  state,  gives  out  a  considerable  amount  of  heat ;  and 
hence  the  resulting  clouds  are  warmer  than  the  air  that  pre- 
cipitates them,  and  much  warmer  than  the  high  rocky  sur- 
faces round  which  they  fold  themselves.  Hence  in  the 
course  of  the  storm,  these  high  rocky  surfaces  are  raised  in 
temperature,  partly  by  radiation  from  the  enwrapping  cloud. 


THE   RHYTHM   OF   MOTION.  259 

partly  by  contact  of  the  falling  rain-drops.  Giving  off  more 
heat  than  before,  they  no  longer  lower  so  greatly  the  temper- 
ature of  the  air  passing  over  them  ;  and  so  cease  to  precipi- 
tate its  contained  water.  The  clouds  break ;  the  sky  begins 
to  clear ;  and  a  gleam  of  sunshine  promises  that  the  day  is 
going  to  be  fine.  But  the  small  supply  of  heat  which  the 
cold  mountain's  sides  have  received,  is  soon  lost :  especially 
when  the  dispersion  of  the  clouds  permits  free  radiation  into 
space.  Yery  soon,  therefore,  these  elevated  surfaces,  becom- 
ing as  cold  as  at  first,  (or  perhaps  even  colder  in  virtue  of  tho 
evaporation  set  up,)  begin  again  to  condense  the  vapour  in 
the  air  above ;  and  there  comes  another  storm,  followed  by 
the  same  effects  as  before.  In  lowland  regions  this  action 
and  reaction  is  usually  less  conspicuous,  because  the  contrast 
of  temperatures  is  less  marked.  Even  here,  however,  it  may 
bo  traced  ;  and  that  not  only  on  showery  days,  but  on  days 
of  continuous  rain  ;  for  in  these  we  do  not  see  uniformity  : 
always  there  are  fits  of  harder  and  gentler  rain  that  are  pro- 
bably caused  as  above  explained. 

Of  course  these  meteorologic  rhythms  involve  something 
corresponding  to  them  in  the  changes  wrought  by  wind  and 
water  on  the  Earth's  surface.  Variations  in  the  quantities  of 
sediment  brought  down  by  rivers  that  rise  and  fall  with  the 
seasons,  must  cause  variations  in  the  resulting  strata — alter- 
nations of  colour  or  quality  in  the  successive  laminae.  Beds 
formed  from  the  detritus  of  shores  worn  down  and  carried 
away  by  the  waves,  must  similarly  show  periodic  differences 
answering  to  the  periodic  winds  of  the  locality.  In  so  far  as 
frost  influences  the  rate  of  denudation,  its  recurrence  is  a 
factor  in  the  rhythm  of  sedimentary  deposits.  And  the 
geological  changes  produced  by  glaciers  and  icebergs  '  must 
similarly  have  their  alternating  periods  of  greater  and  less 
intensity. 

There  is  evidence  also  that  modifications  in  the  Earth's 
crust  due  to  igneous  action  have  a  certain  periodicity.  Vol- 
canic eruptions  are  not  continuous  but  intermittent,  and  as 


260 


THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION. 


far  as  tlie  data  enable  us  to  judge,  have  a  certain  average 
rate  of  recurrence ;  wliich  rate  of  recurrence  is  complicated 
by  rising  into  epoclis  of  greater  activity  and  falling  into 
epochs  of  comparative  quiescence.  So  too  is  it  with  earth 
quakes  and  the  elevations  or  depressions  caused  by  them.  At 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  the  alternation  of  strata  gives 
decisive  proof  of  successive  sinkings  of  the  surface,  that 
have  taken  place  at  tolerably  equal  intervals.  Everywhere, 
in  the  extensive  groups  of  conformable  strata  that  imply 
small  subsidences  recurring  with  a  certain  average  frequency, 
we  see  a  rhythm  in  -the  action  and  reaction  between  the 
Earth's  crust  and  its  molten  contents — a  rhythm  compounded 
with  those  slower  ones  shown  in  the  termination  of  groups  of 
strata,  and  the  commencement  of  other  groups  not  con- 
formable to  them.  There  is  even  reason  for  suspect- 
ing a  geological  periodicity  that  is  immensely  slower  and  far 
wider  in  its  effects  ;  namely,  an  alternation  of  those  vast  up- 
heavals and  submergencies  by  which  continents  are  produced 
where  there  were  oceans,  and  oceans  where  there  were  conti- 
nents. For  supposing,  as  we  may  fairly  do,  that  the  Earth's 
crust  is  throughout  of  tolerably  equal  thickness,  it  is  manifest 
that  such  portions  of  it  as  become  most  depressed  below  the 
average  level,  must  have  their  inner  surfaces  most  exposed 
to  the  currents  of  molten  matter  circulating  within,  and  will 
therefore  undergo  a  larger  amount  of  what  may  be  called 
igneous  denudation  ;  while,  conversely,  the  withdrawal  of  the 
inner  surfaces  from  these  currents  where  the  Earth's  crust  is 
most  elevated,  will  cause  a  thickening  more  or  less  compens- 
ating the  aqueous  denudation  going  on  externally.  Hence 
those  depressed  areas  over  which  the  deepest  oceans  lie,  being 
gradually  thinned  beneath  and  not  covered  by  much  sedi- 
mentary deposit  above,  will  become  areas  of  least  resistance, 
and  will  then  begin  to  yield  to  the  upward  pressure  of  the 
Earth's  contents  ;  whence  will  result,  throughout  such  areas, 
long  continued  elevations,  ceasing  only  when  the  reverse  state 
of  things  has  been  brought  about.     Whether  this  speculation 


THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION.  261 

bo  well  or  ill  founded,  docs  not  however  affect  the  general 
conclusion.  Apart  from  it  we  have  sufficient  evidence  that 
geologic  processes  are  rhythmical. 

§  85.  Perhaps  nowhere  are  the  illustrations  of  rhythm 
80  numerous  and  so  manifest  as  among  the  phenomena  of  life. 
Plants  do  not,  indeed,  usually  show  us  any  decided  periodi- 
cities, save  those  determined  by  day  and  night  and  by  the 
seasons.  But  in  animals  we  have  a  great  variety  of  move- 
ments in  which  the  alternation  of  opposite  extremes  goes  on 
with  all  degrees  of  rapidity.  The  swallowing  of  food  is 
effected  by  a  wave  of  constriction  passing  along  the  oesopha- 
gus ;  its  digestion  is  accompanied  by  a  muscular  action  of  the 
stomach  that  is  also  undulatory ;  and  the  peristaltic  motion  of 
the  intestines  is  of  like  nature.  The  blood  obtained  from  this 
food  is  propelled  not  in  a  uniform  current  but  in  pulses  ;  and 
it  is  aerated  by  lungs  that  alternately  contract  and  expand.  All 
locomotion  results  from  oscillating  movements  :  even  where  it 
is  apparently  continuous,  as  in  many  minute  forms,  the  mi- 
croscope proves  the  vibration  of  cilia  to  be  the  agency  by 
which  the  creature  is  moved  smoothly  forwards. 

Primary  rhythms  of  the  organic  actions  are  compounded 
with  secondary  ones  of  longer  duration.  These  various 
modes  of  activity  have  their  recurring  periods  of  increase  and 
decrease.  "We  see  this  in  the  periodic  need  for  food,  and  in  the 
periodic  need  for  repose.  Each  meal  induces  a  more  rapid 
rhythmic  action  of  the  digestive  organs;  the  pulsation  of 
the  heart  is  accelerated ;  and  the  inspirations  become  more 
frequent.  During  sleep,  on  the  contrary,  these  several 
movements  slacken.  So  that  in  the  course  of  the  twenty- 
four  hours,  those  small  undulations  of  which  the  different 
kinds  of  organic  action  are  constituted,  undergo  one  long 
wave  of  increase  and  decrease,  complicated  with  several 
minor  waves.  Experiments   have  shown  that  there 

ore  still  slower  rises  and  falls  of  functional  activity. 
Waste  and  assimilation  are  not  balanced  by  every  meal,  but 


262  THE  RHYTHM    OF    MOTION. 

one  or  other  maintains  for  some  time  a  sligtt  excess  ;  Bo  that 
a  person  in  ordinary  health  is  found  to  undergo  an  increase 
and  decrease  of  weight  during  recurring  intervals  of  tolerable 
equality.  Besides  these  regular  periods  there  are  still  longei 
and  comparatively  irregular  ones ;  namely,  those  alternations 
of  greater  and  less  vigour,  which  even  healthy  people  expe- 
rience. So  inevitable  are  these  oscillations  that  even  men  in 
training  cannot  be  kept  stationary  at  their  highest  power,  but 
when  they  have  reached  it  begin  to  retrograde.  Fur- 

ther evidence  of  rhythm  in  the  vital  movements  is.  fur- 
nished by  invalids.  Sundry  disorders  are  named  from  the 
intermittent  character  of  their  symptoms.  Even  where  the 
periodicity  is  not  very  marked,  it  is  mostly  traceable.  Patients 
rarely  if  ever  get  uniformly  worse  ;  and  convalescents  have 
usually  their  days  of  partial  relapse  or  of  less  decided  ad- 
vance. 

Aggregates  of  living  creatures  illustrate  the  general  truth 
in  other  ways.  If  each  species  of  organism  be  regarded  as  a 
whole,  it  displays  two  kinds  of  rhythm.  Life  as  it  exists  in 
all  the  members  of  such  species,  is  an  extremely  complex  kind 
of  movement,  more  or  less  distinct  from  the  kinds  of  move- 
ment which  constitute  life  in  other  species.  In  each  indi- 
vidual of  the  species,  this  extremely  complex  kind  of  move- 
ment begins,  rises  to  its  climax,  declines,  •  and  ceases  in 
death.  And  every  successive  generation  thus  exhibits  a  wave 
of  that  peculiar  activity  characterizing  the  species  as  a 
whole.  The  other  form  of  rhythm  is  to  be  traced  in 

that  variation  of  number  which  each  tribe  of  animals  and 
plants  is  ever  undergoing.  Throughout  the  unceasing  con- 
flict between  the  tendency  of  a  species  to  increase  and  the 
antagonistic  tendencies,  there  is  never  an  equilibrium :  one 
always  predominates.  In  the  case  even  of  a  cultivated  plant 
or  domesticated  animal,  whefe  artificial  means  are  used  to 
maintain  the  supply  at  a  uniform  level,  we  still  see  that  oscil> 
lations  of  abundance  and  scarcity  cannot  be  avoided.  And 
among  the  creatures  uncared  for  by  man,  such  oscillations 


THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION.  263 

are  usually  more  marked.  After  a  race  of  organisms  has 
been  greatly  thinned  by  enemies  or  lack  of  food,  its  surviving 
members  become  more  favourably  circumstanced  than  usual 
During  tbe  decline  in  their  numbers  their  food  has  grown 
relatively  more  abundant ;  while  their  enemies  have  diminish  - 
ed  from  want  of  prey.  The  conditions  thus  remain  for 
seme  time  favourable  to  their  increase ;  and  they  multiply 
rapidly.  By  and  by  their  food  is  rendered  relatively  scarce, 
at  the  same  time  that  their  enemies  have  become  more 
numerous ;  and  the  destropng  influences  being  thus  in  excess, 
their   number  begins   to  diminish   again.  Yet  one 

more  rhythm,  extremely  slow  in  its  action,  may  be  traced  in 
the  phenomena  of  Life,  contemplated  under  their  most  general 
aspect.     The  researches  of  palaoontologists  show  that  there 
have  been  going  on,  during  the  vast  period  of  which  our  sedi- 
mentary rocks  bear  record,  successive   changes   of  organic 
forms.     Species  have  appeared,  become  abundant,  and  then 
disappeared.     Genera,  at  first  constituted  of  but  few  species, 
have  for  a  time  gone  on  growing  more  multifonn ;  and  then 
have  begun  to  decline  in  the  number  of  their  subdi\Tsions  : 
leaving  at  last  but  one  or  two  representatives,  or  none  at  all. 
During  longer  epochs  whole  orders  have  thus  arisen,  culmin- 
ated, and  dwindled  away.  And  even  those  wider  divisions  con- 
taining many  orders  have  similarly  undergone  a  gradual  rise, 
a  high  tide,  and  a  long- continued  ebb.    The  stalked  Crinoidea, 
for  example,  which,  during  the  carboniferous  epoch,  became 
abundant,  have  almost  disappeared :  only  a  single   species 
being  extant.     Once  a  large  family  of  molluscs,  the  Brachio- 
poda  have  now  become  rare.      The  shelled  Cephalopods,  at 
one  time  dominant  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  ocean,  both  in 
number  of  forms  and  of  individuals,  are  in  our  day  nearly 
extinct.     And  after  an  *'  age  of  reptiles,**  there  has  come  an. 
age  in  which  reptiles  have  been  in  great  measure  supplanted 
by  mammals.     Whether  these  vast  rises  and  falls  of  different 
kinds  of  life  ever  undergo  anything  approachingto  repetitions, 
(which  they  may  possibly  do  in  correspondence  with  thoKe 


264 


THE    HHITHM    OF    MOTION. 


vast  cycles  of  elevation  and  subsidence  that  produce  continenta 
and  oceans,)  it  is  sufficiently  clear  that  Life  on  the  Earth  has 
not  progressed  uniformly,  but  in  immense  undulations. 

§  86.  It  is  not  manifest  that  the  changes  of  consciousness 
are  in  any  sense  rhythmical.  Yet  here,  too,  analysis  proves 
both  that  the  mental  state  existing  at  any  moment  is  not 
uniform,  but  is  decomposable  into  rapid  oscillations  ;  and  also 
that  mental  states  pass  through  longer  intervals  of  increasing 
and  decreasing  intensity. 

Though  while  attending  to  any  single  sensation,  or  any 
group  of  related  sensations  constituting  the  consciousness  oi 
an  object,  we  seem  to  remain  for  the  time  in  a  persistent  and 
homogeneous  condition  of  mind,  a  careful  self-examination 
shows  that  this  apparently  unbroken  mental  state  is  in  truth 
traversed  by  a  number  of  minor  states,  in  which  various  other 
sensations  and  perceptions  are  rapidly  presented  and  disappear. 
From  the  admitted  fact  that  thinking  consists  in  the  establish- 
ment of  relations,  it  is  a  necessary  corollary  that  the  main- 
tenance of  consciousness  in  any  one  state  to  the  entire  exclu- 
sion of  other  states,  would  be  a  cessation  of  thought,  that  is,  of 
consciousness.  So  that  any  seemingly  continuous  feeling,  say 
of  pressure,  really  consists  of  portions  of  that  feeling  perpetu- 
ally recurring  after  the  momentary  intrusion  of  other  feelings 
and  ideas — quick  thoughts  concerning  the  place  where  it  is 
felt,  the  external  object  producing  it,  its  consequences,  and 
other  things  suggested  by  association.  Thus  there  is  going 
on  an  extremely  rapid  departure  from,  and  return  to,  that  par- 
ticular mentftl  state  which  we  regard  as  persistent.  Besides 
the  evidence  of  rhythm  in  consciousness  which  direct  analysis 
thus  affords,  we  may  gather  further  evidence  from  the  coitc- 
lation  between  feeling  and  movement.  Sensations  and  emotions 
expend  themselves  in  producing  muscular  contractions.  If  a 
sensation  or  emotion  were  strictly  continuous,  there  would  be  a 
continuous  discharge  along  those  motor  nerves  acted  upon.  But 
90  far  as  experiments  with  artificial  stimuli  enable  us  to  judge, 
a  continuous  discharge  along  the  nerve  leading  to  a  muscle, 


THE   RHYTHM   OF   MOTION.  265 

does  not  contract  it :  a  broken  discharge  is  required — a  rapid 
succession  of  shocks.  Hence  muscular  contraction  pre-supposes 
that  rhythmic  state  of  consciousness  which  direct  observation 
discloses.  A  much  more  conspicuous  rhythm,  having 

longer  waves,  is  seen  during  the  outflow  of  emotion  into 
dancing,  poetry,  and  music.  The  current  of  mental  energy 
that  shows  itself  in  these  modes  of  bodily  action,  is  not  con- 
tinuous, but  falls  into  a  succession  of  pulses.  The  measure  of 
a  dance  is  produced  by  the  alternation  of  strong  muscular 
contractions  with  weaker  ones  ;  and,  save  in  measures  of  the 
simplest  order  such  as  are  found  among  barbarians  and 
children,  this  alternation  is  compounded  with  longer  rises  and 
falls  in  the  degree  of  muscular  excitement.  Poetry  is  a  form  of 
speech  which  results  when  the  emphasis  is  regularly  recurrent ; 
that  is,  when  the  muscular  effort  of  pronunciation  has  de- 
finite periods  of  greater  and  less  intensity — periods  that  are 
complicated  with  others  of  like  nature  answering  to  the  suc- 
cessive verses.  Music,  in  still  more  various  ways,  exemplifies 
the  law.  There  are  the  recurring  bars,  in  each  of  which  there 
is  a  primary  and  a  secondary  beat.  There  is  the  alternate 
increase  and  decrease  of  muscular  strain,  implied  by  the 
ascents  and  descents  to  the  higher  and  lower  notes — as- 
cents and  descents  composed  of  smaller  waves,  breaking  the 
rises  and  falls  of  the  larger  ones,  in  a  mode  peculiar  to  each 
melody.  And  then  we  have,  further,  the  alternation  of  piano 
and  forte  passages.  That  these  several  kinds  of  rhythm, 
characterizing  sesthetic  expression,  are  not,  in  the  common 
sense  of  the  word,  artificial,  but  are  intenser  forms  of  an  un- 
dulatory  movement  habitually  generated  by  feeling  in  its 
bodily  discharge,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they  are  all  trace- 
able in  ordinary  speech  ;  which  in  every  sentence  has  its 
primary  and  secondary  emphases,  and  its  cadence  containing 
a  chief  rise  and  fall  complicated  with  subordinate  rises 
and  falls ;  and  which  is  accompanied  by  a  more  or  less 
oscillatory  action  of  the  limbs  when  the  emotion  is 
great.  Still  longer  undulations  may  be  observed  by 

every  one,  in  himself  and  in  others,  on  occasions  of  extreme 
13 


2G6  THE    KIIYTHM    OF    MOTION. 

pleasure  or  extreme  pain.  ITote,  in  the  first  place,  that  pain 
having  its  origin  in  bodily  disorder,  is  nearly  always  percep- 
t  Ibly  rhythmical.  During  hours  in  which  it  never  actually 
f  cases,  it  has  its  variations  of  intensity — fits  or  paroxysms ;  and 
then  after  these  hours  of  sufiering  there  usually  come  hours 
of  comparative  ease.  Moral  pain  has  the  Hke  smaller  and 
larger  waves.  One  possessed  by  intense  grief  does  not  utter 
continuous  moans,  or  shed  tears  with  an  equable  rapidity  ; 
but  these  signs  of  passion  come  in  recurring  bursts.  Then 
after  a  time  during  which  such  stronger  and  weaker  waves 
of  emotion  alternate,  there  comes  a  calm — a  time  of  compara- 
tive deadness;  to  which  again  succeeds  another  interval, 
when  duU  sorrovf .  rises  afresh  into  acute  anguish,  with  its 
series  of  paroxysms.  Similarly  in  great  delight,  especially  as 
manifested  by  children  who  have  its  display  less  under  control, 
there  are  visible  variations  in  the  intensity  of  feeling  shown — 
fits  of  laughter  and  dancing  about,  separated  by  pauses  in 
which  smiles,  and  other  slight  manifestations  of  pleasure, 
suffice  to  discharge  the  lessened  excitement.  Nor  are 

there  wanting  evidences  of  mental  undulations  greater  in 
length  than  any  of  these — undulations  which  take  weeks,  or 
months,  or  years,  to  complete  themselves.  We  continually 
hear  of  moods  which  recur  at  intervals.  Yery  many  persona 
have  their  epochs  of  vivacity  and  depression.  There  are  periods 
of  industry  following  periods  of  idleness ;  and  times  at  which 
particular  subjects  or  tastes  are  cultivated  with  zeal,  alternat- 
ing with  times  at  which  they  are  neglected.  Respecting 
which  slow  oscillations,  the  only  qualification  to  be  made  is, 
that  being  afiected  by  numerous  influences,  they  are  com- 
paratively irregular. 

§  87.     In  nomadic  societies  the  changes  of  place,  deter 
mined  as  they  usually  are  by  exhaustion  or  failure  of  the 
supply  of  food,  are  periodic ;  and  in  many  cases   show   a 
recurrence  answering  to  the  seasons.     Each  tribe  that  has 
oecome  in  some  degree  fixed  in  its  locality,  goes  on  increasing, 


THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION.  267 

till  under  the  pressures  of  unsatisfied  .desires,  there  results 
migration  of  some  part  of  it  to  a  new  region — a  process  repeat- 
ed at  intervals.  From  sucli  excesses  of  population,  and  such 
successive  waves  of  migration,  come  conflicts  with  other 
tribes  ;  which  are  also  increasing  and  tending  to  diffuse 
themselves.  This  antagonism,  like  all  others,  results  not  in  an 
uniform  motion,  but  in  an  intermittent  one.  "War,  exhaus- 
tion, recoil — peace,  prosperity,  and  renewed  aggression  : — see 
here  the  alternation  more  or  less  discernible  in  the  military 
activities  of  both  savage  and  civilized  nations.  And  irregular 
as  is  this  rhythm,  it  is  not  more  so  than  the  different  sizes 
of  the  societies,  and  the  extremely  involved  causes  of  varia- 
tion in  their  strengths,  would  lead  us  to  anticipate. 

Passing  from  external  to  internal  changes,  we  meet  with 
this  backward  and  forward  movement  under  many  forms.  In 
the  currents  of  commerce  it  is  especialty  conspicuous. 
Exchange  during  early  times  is  almost  wholly  carried  on  at 
fairs,  held  at  long  intervals  in  the  chief  centres  of  population. 
The  flux  and  reflux  of  people  and  commodities  which  each  of 
these  exhibits,  becomes  more  frequent  as  national  develop- 
ment leads  to  greater  social  activity.  The  more  rapid  rhythm 
of  weekly  markets  begins  to  supersede  the  slow  rhythm  of 
fairs.  And  eventually  the  process  of  exchange  becomes  at 
certain  places  so  active,  as  to  bring  about  daily  meetings  of 
buyers  and  sellers — a  daily  wave  of  accumulation  and  dis- 
tribution of  cotton,  or  corn,  or  capital.  If  from 
exchange  we  turn  to  production  and  consumption,  we  see 
undulations,  much  longer  indeed  in  their  periods,  but  almost 
equally  obvious.  Supply  and  demand  are  never  completely 
adapted  to  each  other  ;  but  each  of  them  from  time  to  time 
in  excess,  leads  presently  to  an  excess  of  the  other.  Farmers 
who  have  one  season  produced  wheat  very  abundantly,  are 
disgusted  with  the  consequent  low  price ;  and  next  season, 
sowing  a  much  spialler  quantity,  bring  to  market  a  deficient 
crop ;  whence  follows  a  converse  effect.  Consumption 
undergoes  parallel  undulations  that  need  not  be  specified. 


268  THE   RHYTHM    OF    MOTION. 

The  balancing  of  supplies  between  different  districts,  too, 
entails  analogous  oscillations.  A  place  at  wbicb  some  neces- 
sary of  life  is  scarce,  becomes  a  place  to  wbicb.  currents  of  it 
are  set  up  from  other  places  where  it  is  relatively  abundant ; 
and  these  currents  from  all  sides  lead  to  a  wave  of  accumula- 
tion where  they  meet — a  glut :  whence  follows  a  recoil — a 
partial  return  of  the  currents.  But  the  undulatory 

character  of  these  actions  is  perhaps  best  seen  in  the  rises  and 
falls  of  prices.  These,  given  in  numerical  measures  which 
may  be  tabulated  and  reduced  to  diagrams,  show  us  in  the 
clearest  manner  how  commercial  movements  are  compounded 
of  oscillations  of  various  magnitudes.  The  price  of  consols  or 
the  price  of  wheat,  as  thus  represented,  is  seen  to  undergo 
vast  ascents  and  descents  whose  highest  and  lowest  points  are 
reached  only  in  the  course  of  years.  These  largest  waves  of 
variation  are  broken  by  others  extending  over  periods  of 
perhaps  many  months.  On  these  again  come  others  having 
a  week  or  two's  duration.  And  were  the  changes  marked  in 
greater  detail,  we  should  have  the  smaller  undulations  that 
take  place  each  day,  and  the  still  smaller  ones  which  brokers 
telegraph  from  hour  to  hour.  The  whole  outline  would  show 
a  complication  like  that  of  a  vast  ocean-swell,  on  whose  sur- 
face there  rise  large  billows,  which  themselves  bear  waves  of 
moderate  size,  covered  by  wavelets,  that  are  roughened  by  a 
minute  ripple.  Similar  diagramatic  representations  of  births, 
marriages,  and  deaths,  of  disease,  of  crime,  of  pauperism, 
exhibit  involved  conflicts  of  rhythmical  motions  throughout 
society  under  these  several  aspects. 

There  are  like  characteristics  in  social  changes  of  a  more 
complex  kind.  Both  in  England  and  among  continental 
nations,  the  action  and  reaction  of  political  progress  have 
come  to  be  generally  recognized.  IleligJon,  besides  its  occa- 
sional revivals  of  smaller  magnitude,  has  its  long  periods  of 
exaltation  and  depression — generations  of  belief  and  self-mor- 
tification, following  generations  of  indifference  and  laxity. 
There  are  poetical  epochs,  and  epochs  in  which  the  sense  of  the 


THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION.  269 

beautiful  seems  almost  dormant.  Philosophy,,  after  having 
been  awhile  predominant,  lapses  for  a  long  season  into  neglect ; 
and  then  again  slowly  revives.  Each  science  has  its  eras  of 
deductive  reasoning,  and  its  eras  when  attention  is  chiefly 
directed  to  collecting  and  colligating  facts.  And  how  in  such 
minor  but  more  obtrusive  phenomena  as  those  of  fashion, 
there  are  ever  going  on  oscillations  from  one  extreme  to  the 
other,  is  a  trite  observation. 

As  may  be  foreseen,  social  rhythms  well  illustrate  the 
irregularity  that  results  from  combination  of  many  causes. 
Where  the  variations  are  those  of  one  simple  element  in  na- 
tional life,  as  the  supply  of  a  particular  commodity,  we  do  in- 
deed witness  a  retui-n,  after  many  involved  movements,  to  a 
previous  condition — the  price  may  become  what  it  was  before  : 
implying  a  like  relative  abundance.  But  where  the  action  is 
one  into  which  many  factors  enter,  there  is  never  a  recur- 
rence of  exactly  the  same  state.  A  political  reaction  never 
brings  round  just  the  old  form  of  things.  The  rationalism 
of  the  present  day  differs  widely  from  the  rationalism  of  the 
last  century.  And  though  fashion  from  time  to  time  revives 
extinct  types  of  dress,  these  always  re- appear  with  decided 
modifications. 

§  88.  The  universality  of  this  principle  suggests  a  question 
like  that  raised  in  foregoing  cases.  Rhythm  being  manifested 
in  all  forms  of  movement,  we  have  reason  to  suspect  that  it 
is  determined  by  some  primordial  condition  to  action  in 
general.  The  tacit  implication  is  that  it  is  deducible  from 
the  persistence  of  force.     This  we  shall  find  to  be  the  fact. 

When  the  prong  of  a  tuning-fork  is  pulled  on  one  side  by 
the  finger,  a  certain  extra  tension  is  produced  among  its  co- 
hering particles ;  which  resist  any  force  that  draws  them  out 
of  their  state  of  eqmlibrium.  As  much  force  as  the  finger 
exerts  in  pulling  the  prong  aside,  so  much  opposing  force  is 
brought  into  play  among  the  cohering  particles.  Hence, 
when  the  prong  is  liberated,  it  is  urged  back  by  a  force  equal 


270  THE    RHYTHM   OF    MOTION. 

to  that  used  in  deflecting  it.  When,  therefore,  the  prong 
reaches  its  original  position,  the  force  impressed  on  it  during 
its  recoil,  has  generated  in  it  a  corresponding  amount  of  mo- 
mentum— an  amount  of  momentum  nearly  equivalent,  that 
is,  to  the  force  originally  impressed  (nearly,  we  must  say, 
because  a  certain  portion  has  gone  in  communicating  motion 
to  the  air,  and  a  certain  other  portion  has  been  transformed 
into  heat).  This  momentum  carries  the  prong  beyond  the 
position  of  rest,  nearly  as  far  as  it  was  originally  dra^vn  in 
the  reverse  direction ;  until  at  length,  being  gradually  used 
up  in  producing  an  opposing  tension  among  the  particles,  it 
is  all  lost.  The  opposing  tension  into  which  the  expended 
momentum  has  been  transformed,  then  generates  a  second  re- 
coil ;  and  so  on  continuall}^ — the  vibration  eventually  ceasmg 
only  because  at  each  movement  a  certain  amount  of  force 
goes  ia  creating  atmospheric  and  etherial  undulations. 
Now  it  needs  but  to  contemplate  this  repeated  action  and  re- 
action, to  see  that  it  is,  like  every  action  and  reaction,  a 
consequence  of  the  persistence  of  force.  The  force  exerted 
by  the  finger  in  bending  the  prong  cannot  disappear. 
Under  what  form  then  does  it  exist  ?  It  exists  under  the 
form  of  that  cohesive  tension  which  it  has  generated  among 
the  particles.  This  cohesive  tension  cannot  cease  without  an 
equivalent  result.  What  is  its  equivalent  result  ?  The 
momentum  generated  in  the  prong  while  being  carried  back 
to  its  position  of  rest.  This  momentum  too — what  becomes 
of  it  ?  It  must  either  continue  as  momentum,  or  produce 
some  correlative  force  of  equal  amount.  It  cannot  continue 
as  momentum,  since  change  of  place  is  resisted  by  the  cohe- 
sion of  the  parts  ;  and  thus  it  gradually  disappears  by  being 
transformed  into  tension  among  these  parts.  This  is  rc- 
transformed  into  the  equivalent  momentum  ;  and  so  on  con- 
tinuously. If  instead  of  motion  tliat  is  directly  anta- 
gonized by  the  cohesion  of  matter,  we  consider  motion  through 
space,  the  same  truth  presents  itself  under  another  form. 
Though  here  no  opposing  force  seems  at  work,  and  therefore 


THE    RHYTHM    OF    MOTION.  271 

no  cause  of  rhytlmi  is  apparent,  yet  its  own  accumnlatti) 
momentum  must  eventually  carry  the  moving  body  beyond 
the  body  attracting  it ;  and  so  must  become  a  force  at  vari- 
ance with  that  which  generated  it.  From  this  conflict, 
rhythm  necessarily  results  as  in  the  foregoing  case.  The 
force  embodied  as  momentum  in  a  given  direction,  cannot  bo 
destroyed  ;  and  if  it  eventually  disappears,  it  re-appears  ii? 
the  reaction  on  the  retarding  body ;  which  begins  afresh  to 
draw  the  now  arrested  mass  back  from  its  aphelion.  The 
only  conditions  under  which  there  could  be  absence  of  rhythm 
— the  only  conditions,  that  is,  under  which  there  could  be  a 
continuous  motion  through  space  in  the  same  straight  line 
for  ever,  would  be  the  existence  of  an  infinity  void  of  every- 
thing but  the  moving  body.  And  neither  of  these  conditions 
can  be  represented  in  thought.  Infinity  is  inconceivable  ; 
and  so  also  is  a  motion  which  never  had  a  commencement  in 
some  pre-existing  source  of  power. 

Thus,  then,,  rhythm  is  a  necessary  characteristic  of  all 
motion.  Given  the  co-existence  everywhere  of  antagonist 
forces — a  postulate  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  necessitated 
by  the  form  of  our  experience — and  rhytlmi  is  an  inevitable 
corollary  from  the  persistence  of  force. 


CHAPTEH  XI. 

RECAPITULATION,    CRITICISJI,   AND    RECOMMENCEMENT. 

§  89.  Let  lis  pause  awliile  to  consider  liow  far  the  con- 
tents of  tlie  foregoing  cliapters  go  towards  forming  a  body 
of  knowledge  sucli  as  was  defined  at  tlie  outset  as  constitut- 
ing Pliilosopliy. 

In  respect  of  its  generality,  tlie  proposition  enunciated 
and  exemplified  in  eacli  chapter,  is  of  the  required  kind — is 
a  proposition  transcending  those  class-limits  which  Science, 
as  currently  understood,  recognizes.  ^^  The  Indestructibility 
of  Matter  "  is  a  truth  not  belonging  to  mechanics  more  than 
to  chemistry,  a  truth  assumed  alike  by  molecular  physics 
and  the  physics  that  deals  with  sensible  masses,  a  truth 
which  the  astronomer  and  the  biologist  equally  take  for 
granted.  Not  merely  do  those  divisions  of  Science  which 
deal  with  the  movements  of  celestial  and  terrestrial  bodies 
postulate  '^  The  Continuity  of  Motion,^'  but  it  is  no  less  pos- 
tulated in  the  physicist's  investigations  into  the  phenomena 
of  light  and  heat,  and  is  tacitly,  if  not  avowedly,  implied  in 
the  generalizations  of  the  higher  sciences.  So,  too,  "  The 
Persistence  of  Force,''  involved  in  each  of  the  preceding 
propositions,  is  co-extensive  with  them,  as  is  also  its  corollary, 
'^  The  Persistence  of  Relations  among  Forces."  These  are 
not  truths  of  a  high  generality,  but  they  are  universal 
truths.  Passing    to  the   deductions   drawn   from 

them,  we  see  the  same  thine:.     That  force  is  transformable. 


EECAPITULATIONj    CKITICISM^   AND   EECOMMENCEMENT.     273 

ftiid  tliat  between  its  correlates  there  exist  quantitative  equi- 
valences^ are  ultimate  facts  not  to  be  classed  witb  those  of  me- 
chanics^ or  thermology^  or  electricity^  or  magnetism;  but  they 
are  illustrated  throughout  phenomena  of  every  order^  up  to 
those  of  mind  and  society.  Similarly,  the  law  that  motion  fol- 
lows the  line  of  least  resistance  or  the  line  of  greatest  traction, 
or  the  resultant  of  the  two,  we  found  to  be  an  all-pervading 
law ;  conformed  to  alike  by  each  planet  in  its  orbit,  and  by 
the  moving  matters,  aerial,  liquid,  and  solid,  on  its  surface 
— conformed  to  no  less  by  every  organic  movement  and 
process  than  by  every  inorganic  movement  and  process. 
And  so  likewise,  in  the  chapter  just  closed,  it  has  been 
shown  that  rhythm  is  exhibited  universally,  from  the  slow 
gyrations  of  double  stars  down  to  the  inconceivably  rapid 
oscillations  of  molecules — from  such  terrestrial  changes  as 
those  of  recurrent  glacial  epochs  and  gradually  alternating 
elevations  and  subsidences,  down  to  those  of  the  winds  and 
tides  and  waves  ;  and  is  no  less  conspicuous  in  the  functions 
of  living  organisms,  from  the  pulsations  of  the  heart  up  to 
the  paroxysms  of  the  emotions. 

Thus  these  truths  have  the  character  which  constitutes 
them  parts  of  Philosophy,  properly  so  called.  They  aro 
truths  which  unify  concrete  phenomena  belonging  to  all 
divisions  of  Nature ;  and  so  must  be  components  of  that 
complete,  coherent  conception  of  things  which  Philosophy 
seeks. 

§  90.  But  now  what  parts  do  these  truths  play  in  forming 
such  a  conception  ?  Does  any  one  of  them  singly  convey 
an  idea  of  the  Cosmos  :  meaning  by  this  word  the  totality 
of  the  manifestations  of  the  Unknowable  ?  Do  all  of  them 
taken  together  yield  us  an  adequate  idea  of  this  kind  ?  Do 
they  even  when  thought  of  in  combination  compose  any- 
thing like  such  an  idea  ?  To  each  of  these  questions  tho 
answer  must  be — No. 

Neither  these  truths  nor  any  other  such  truths,  separately 


274      EECAPITULATION,    CEITICISM,   AJSD    RECOMMENCEMENT. 

OP  jointly^  constitute  tliat  integrated  knowledge  in  wliicli 
only  Pliilosopliy  finds  its  goal.  It  has  been  supposed  by 
one  thinker  that  when  Science  has  succeeded  in  reducing  all 
more  complex  laws  to  some  most  simple  law,  as  of  molecular 
action,  knowledge  will  have  reached  its  limit.  Another 
authority  has  tacitly  asserted  that  all  minor  facts  are  so 
merged  in  the  major  fact  that  the  force  everywhere  iu 
action  is  nowhere  lost,  that  to  express  this  is  to  express 
"  the  constitution  of  the  universe.''^  But  either  conclusion 
implies  a  misapprehension  of  the  problem. 

For  these  are  all  analytical  truths,  and  no  analytical  truth 
— no  number  of  analytical  truths,  will  make  up  that  syn- 
thesis of  thought  Avhich  alone  can  be  an  interpretation  of 
the  synthesis  of  things.  The  decomposition  of  phenomena 
into  their  elements,  is  but  a  preparation  for  understanding 
phenomena  in  their  state  of  composition,  as  actually  mani- 
fested. To  have  ascertained  the  laws  of  the  factors  is  not 
at  all  to  have  ascertained  the  laws  of  their  co-operation. 
The  question  is,  not  how  any  factor.  Matter  or  Motion  or 
Force,  behaves  by  itself,  or  under  some  imagined  simple 
conditions ;  nor  is  it  even  how  one  factor  behaves  under  the 
complicated  conditions  of  actual  existence.  The  thing  to 
be  expressed  is  the  joint  product  of  the  factors  under  all  its 
various  aspects.  Only  when  we  can  formulate  the  total 
process,  have  we  gained  that  knowledge  of  it  which  Philo- 
sophy aspires  to.  A  clear  comprehension  of  this  matter  is 
important  enough  to  justify  some  further  exposition. 

§  91.  Suppose  a  chemist,  a  geologist,  and  a  biologist, 
have  given  the  deepest  explanations  furnished  by  their 
respective  sciences,  of  the  processes  going  on  in  a  burning 
candle,  in  a  region  changed  by  earthquake,  and  in  a  grow- 
ing plant.  To  the  assertion  that  their  explanations  are  not 
the  deepest  possible,  they  will  probably  rejoin — "What 
would  you  have  ?  What  remains  to  bo  said  of  combustion 
when  light  and  heat  and  the  dissipation  of  substance  have 


EECAPiTULATIOl!T,    CEITICISM^   AND   EECOMMENCEMENT.       275 

all  been  traced  down  to  tlie  liberation  of  molecular  motion 
as  tlieir  common  cause  ?  "V\Tien  all  tbe  actions  accompany- 
ing an  eartliquake  are  explained  as  consequent  upon  the 
slow  loss  of  tbe  Earth's  internal  heat,  how  is  it  possible  to 
go  lower  ?  When  the  influence  of  light  on  the  oscillations 
of  molecules  has  been  proved  to  account  for  vegetal  growth, 
what  is  the  imaginable  further  rationale  ?  You  ask  for  a 
synthesis.  You  say  that  knowledge  does  not  end  in  the 
resolution  of  phenomena  into  the  actions  of  certain  factors, 
each  conforming  to  ascertained  laws ;  but  that  the  laws  of 
the  factors  having  been  ascertained,  there  comes  the  chief 
problem — to  show  how  from  their  joint  action  result  tho 
phenomena  in  all  their  complexity.  Well,  do  not  the  above 
interpretations  satisfy  this  requirement  ?  Do  we  not,  start- 
ing with  the  molecular  motions  of  the  elements  concerned 
in  combustion,  build  up  synthetically  an  explanation  of  the 
light,  and  the  heat,  and  the  produced  gases,  and  the  move- 
ments of  the  produced  gases?  Do  we  not,  setting  out 
from  the  still-continued  radiation  of  its  heat,  construct  by 
synthesis  a  clear  conception  of  the  Earth's  nucleus  as  con- 
tracting, its  crust  as  collapsing,  as  becoming  shaken  and 
fissured  and  contorted  and  burst  through  by  lava?  ^jid 
is  it  not  the  same  with  the  chemical  changes  and  accumula- 
tion of  matter  in  the  growing  plant  ? '' 

To  all  which  the  reply  is,  that  the  ultimate  interpretation 
to  be  reached  by  Philosophy,  is  a  universal  synthesis  com- 
prehending and  consolidating  such  special  syntheses.  Tho 
synthetic  explanations  which  Science  gives,  even  up  to 
the  most  general,  are  more  or  less  independent  of  one 
another.  Though  they  may  have  like  elements  in  them, 
they  are  not  united  by  the  likeness  of  their  essential 
structures.  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  in  the  burning  candle, 
in  the  quaking  Earth,  and  in  the  organism  that  is  increas- 
ing, the  processes  as  wholes  are  unrelated  to  one  another  ? 
If  it  is  admitted  that  each  of  the  factors  concerned  always 
operates  in  conformity  to  a  law,  is  it  to  be  concluded  that 


276      KECAPITUIATION,   CRITICISM^   AND    KECOMMENCEMENT. 

their  co-operation  conforms  to  no  law?  Tliese  variou3 
clianges,  artificial  and  natural,  organic  and  inorganic,  wliicli 
for  convenience  sake  we  distingaisli,  are  not  from  tlie 
higliest  point  of  view  to  be  distinguislied ;  for  they  are  all 
changes  going  on  in  the  same  Cosmos,  and  forming  parts  of 
one  vast  transformation.  The  play  of  forces  is  essentially 
the  same  in  principle  tliroughout  the  whole  region  explored 
hy  our  intelligence ;  and  though,  varying  infinitely  in  their 
proportions  and  combinations,  they  work  out  results  every- 
where more  or  less  difi'erent,  and  often  seeming  to  have  no 
kinship,  yet  there  cannot  but  be  among  these  results  a 
fundamental  community.  The  question  to  be  answered  is 
— what  is  the  common  element  in  the  histories  of  all  con- 
crete processes  ? 

§  92.  To  resume,  then,  we  have  now  to  seek  a  law  of 
composition  of  phenomena,  co-extensive  with  those  laws  of 
their  components  set  forth  in  the  foregoing  chapters. 
Having  seen  that  matter  is  indestructible,  motion  con- 
tinuous, and  force  persistent — having  seen  that  forces  are 
everywhere  undergoing  transformation,  and  that  motion,  al- 
ways following  the  line  of  least  resistance,  is  invariably 
rhythmic,  it  remains  to  discover  the  similarly-invariable 
formula  expressing  the  combined  consequences  of  the  actions 
thus  separately  formulated. 

.  What  must  be  the  general  character  of  such  a  formula? 
It  must  be  one  that  specifies  the  coui-se  of  the  changes 
undergone  by  both  the  matter  and  the  motion.  Every 
transformation  impHes  re-arrangement  of  component  parts; 
and  a  definition  of  it,  while  saying  what  has  happened  to  the 
sensible  or  insensible  portions  of  substance  concerned,  must 
also  say  what  has  happened  to  the  movements,  sensible  or 
insensible,  which  the  re-arrangement  of  parts  implies.  Fur- 
ther, unless  the  transformation  always  goes  on  in  the  same 
way  and  at  the  same  rate,  the  formula  must  specify  the  con- 
ditions under  which  it  commences,  ceases,  and  is  reversed. 


EECAPITULATION^    CRITICISM^    AND    KECOMMENCEMENT.      277 

Tbe  law  we  seek^  tiierefore,  must  be  tlie  law  of  the  con- 
tinuoiLs  redistribution  of  matter  and  motion.  Absolute  rest 
and  permanence  do  not  exist.  Every  object^  no  less  than 
the  aggregate  of  all  objects,  undergoes  from  instant  to 
instant  some  alteration  of  state.  Gradually  or  quickly  it  is 
receiving  motion  or  losing  motion,  wbile  some  or  all  of  its 
parts  are  simultaneously  cbanging  their  relations  to  one 
another.  And  the  question  to  be  answered  is — ^What 
dynamic  principle,  true  of  the  metamorphosis  as  a  whole 
and  in  its  details,  expresses  these  ever-changing  relations  ? 

This  chapter  has.  served  its  purpose  if  it  has  indicated  the 
nature  of  the  ultimate  problem.  The  discussion  on  which 
we  are  now  to  enter,  may  fitly  open  with  a  new  presentation 
of  this  problem,  carrying  with  it  the  clear  implication  that  a 
Philosophy,  rightly  so-called,  can  come  into  existence  only 
by  solving  the  problem. 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

EVOLUTION   AND    DISSOLUTION. 

§  93.  An  entire  liistory  of  anytliing  must  include  its  ap- 
pearance out  of  the  imperceptible  and  its  disappearance  into 
tL.e  imperceptible.  Be  it  a  single  object  or  tlie  whole  uni- 
verse^ any  account  wMcb.  begins  with  it  in  a  concrete  formj 
or  leaves  off  with  it  in  a  concrete  form^  is  incomplete ;  since 
there  remains  an  era  of  its  knowable  existence  undescribed 
and  unexplained.  Admitting,  or  rather  asserting,  that 
knowledge  is  limited  to  the  phenomenal,  we  have,  by  impli- 
cation, asserted  that  the  sphere  of  knowledge  is  co-extensive 
with  the  phenomenal — co- extensive  with  all  modes  of  the  Un- 
knowable that  can  affect  consciousness.  Hence,  wherever 
we  now  find  Being  so  conditioned  as  to  act  on  our  senses, 
there  arise  the  questions — ^how  came  it  thus  conditioned  ? 
and  how  will  it  cease  to  be  thus  conditioned?  Unless  on  the 
assumption  that  it  acquired  a  sensible  form  at  the  moment 
of  perception,  and  lost  its  sensible  form  the  moment  after 
perception,  it  must  have  had  an  antecedent  existence  under 
this  sensible  form,  and  will  have  a  subsequent  existence 
under  this  sensible  form.  These  preceding  and  succeeding 
existences  under  sensible  forms,  are  possible  subjects  of 
knowledge;  and  knowledge  has  obviously  not  reached  its 
limits  until  it  has  united  the  past,  present,  and  future 
histories  into  a  whole. 

The  sayings  and  doings  of  daily  life  imply  more  or  less 


EVOLUTION   AND   DISSOLUTION.  279 

Bucli  knowledge,  actual  or  potential,  of  states  wMcli  have 
goner  before  and  of  states  wldcli  will  come  after;  and, 
indeed,  tlie  greater  part  of  our  knowledge  involves  tlieso 
elements.  Knowing  any  man  personally,  implies  having  be- 
fore seen  bim  under  a  shape  much  the  same  as  his  present 
shape ;  and  knowing  him  simply  as  a  man,  implies  the  in- 
ferred antecedent  states  of  infancy,  childhood,  and  youth. 
Though  the  man^s  future  is  not  known  specifically,  it  is 
known  generally :  the  facts  that  he  will  die  and  that  his 
body  will  decay,  are  facts  which  complete  in  outline  tho 
changes  to  be  hereafter  gone  through  by  him.  So  with  all 
the  objects  around.  The  pre-existence  under  concrete  forms 
of  the  woollens,  silks,  and  cottons  we  wear,  we  can  trace 
bome  distance  back.  We  are  certain  that  our  furniture 
consists  of  matter  which  was  aggregated  by  trees  within 
these  few  generations.  Even  of  the  stones  composing  tho 
walls  of  the  house,  we  are  able  to  say  that  years  or  centuries 
ago,  they  formed  parts  of  some  stratum  imbedded  in  the 
earth.  Moreover,  respecting  the  hereafter  of  the  wearable 
fabrics,  the  furniture,  and  the  walls,  we  can  assert  thus 
much,  that  they  are  all  in  process  of  decay,  and  in 
periods  of  various  lengths  will  lose  their  present  coherent 
shapes.  This  general  information  which  all  men 

gain  concerning  the  past  and  future  careers  of  surround- 
ing things.  Science  has  extended,  and  continues  unceas- 
ingly to  extend.  To  the  biography  of  the  individual 
man,  it  adds  an  intra-uterine  biography  beginning  with  him 
as  a  microscopic  germ;  and  it  follows  out  his  ultimate 
changes  until  it  finds  his  body  resolved  into  the  gaseous 
products  of  decomposition.  Not  stopping  short  at  the 
sheep^s  back  and  the  caterpillar's  cocoon,  it  identifies  in 
wool  and  silk  the  nitrogenous  matters  absorbed  by  the 
sheep  and  the  caterpillar  from  plants.  The  substance 
of  a  plant's  leaves,  in  common  with  the  wood  from  which 
furnitui-e  is  made,  it  again  traces  back  to  the  vegetal  assi- 
milation of  gases  from  the  air  and  of  certain  minerals  from 


280  EVOLUTION  AND   DISSOLUTION. 

the  soil.  And  inquiring  whence  came  tlie  stratum  of  stone 
tliat  was  quarried  to  build  tlie  house,,  it  finds  that  this  was 
once  a  loose  sediment  deposited  in  an  estuary  or  on  the  sea 
bottom. 

If,  then,  the  past  and  the  future  of  each  object,  is  a 
sphere  of  possible  knowledge ;  and  if  intellectual  progress 
consists  largely,  if  not  mainly,  in  widening  our  acquaint- 
ance with  this  past  and  this  future  j  it  is  obvious  that  we 
have  not  acquired  all  the  information  within  the  grasp  of 
our  intelligence  until  we  can,  in  some  way  or  other,  express 
the  whole  past  and  the  whole  future  of  each  object  and  the 
aggregate  of  objects.  Usually  able,  as  we  are,  to  say  of  any 
visible  tangible  thing  how  it  came  to  have  its  present  shape 
and  consistence ;  we  are  fully  possessed  with  the  conviction 
that,  setting  out  abruptly  as  we  do  with  some  substance 
which  already  had  a  concrete  form,  our  history  is  incom- 
plete :  the  thing  had  a  history  preceding  the  state  with 
which  we  started.  Hence  our  Theory  of  Things,  considered 
individually  or  in  their  totality,  is  confessedly  imperfect  so 
long  as  any  past  or  future  portions  of  their  sensible  exist- 
ences are  unaccounted  for. 

May  it  not  be  inferred  that  Philosophy  has  to  formulate 
this  passage  from  the  imperceptible  into  the  perceptible,  and 
again  from  the  perceptible  into  the  imperceptible  ?  Is  it  not 
clear  that  this  general  law  of  the  redistribution  of  matter 
and  motion,  which  we  lately  saw  is  required  to  unify  the 
various  kinds  of  changes,  must  also  be  one  that  unifies  tho 
successive  changes  which  sensible  existences,  separately  and 
together,  pass  through  ?  Only  by  some  formula  combining 
these  characters  can  knowledge  be  reduced  to  a  coherent 
whole. 

§  94.  Already  in  tho  foregoing  paragraphs  the  outline  of 
such  a  formula  is  foreshadowed.  Already  in  recognizing  tho 
fact  that  Science,  tracing  back  the  genealogies  of  various 
objects,  finds  their  components  were  once  in  diffused  states, 


EVOLUTION  AND  DISSOLUTION.  281 

and  pursuing  tlieir  histories  forwards,  finds  difijisod  states 
will  be  again  assumed  by  tbem^  we  have  recognized  the  fact 
that  the  formula  must  be  one  comprehending  the  two  oppo- 
site processes  of  concentration  and  diffusion.  And  already 
in  thus  describing  the  general  nature  of  the  formula^  wo 
have  approached  a  specific  expression  of  it.  The  change 
from  a  diffused^  imperceptible  state^  to  a  concentrated^  per- 
ceptible statOj  is  an  integration  of  matter  and  concomitant 
dissipation  of  motion ;  and  the  change  from  a  concentrated, 
perceptible  state^  to  a  diffused^  imperceptible  state,  is  an 
absorption  of  motion  and  concomitant  disintegration  of 
matter.  These  are  truisms.  Constituent  parts"  cannot 
aggregate  without  losing  some  of  their  relative  motion ;  and 
they  cannot  separate  without  more  relative  motion  being 
given  to  them.  We  are  not  concerned  here  with  any  motion 
which  the  components  of  a  mass  have  with  respect  to  other 
masses  :  we  are  concerned  only  with  the  motion  they  have 
with  respect  to  one  another.  Confining  our  attention  to  this 
internal  motion,  and  to  the  matter  possessing  it,  the  axiom 
which  we  have  to  recognize  is  that  a  progressing  consohda- 
tion  involves  a  decrease  of  internal  motion ;  and  that  in- 
crease of  internal  motion  involves  a  progressing  unconsoli- 
dation. 

When  taken  together,  the  two  opposite  processes  thus 
formulated  constitute  the  history  of  every  sensible  existence, 
under  its  simplest  form.  Loss  of  motion  and  consequent 
integration,  eventually  followed  by  gain  of  motion  and  con- 
sequent disintegration — see  here  a  statement  comprehensive 
of  the  entire  series  of  changes  passed  through  :  comprehen- 
sive in  an  extremely  general  way,  as  any  statement  which 
holds  of  sensible  existences  at  large  must  be ;  but  still, 
cotnprchensive  in  the  sense  that  all  the  changes  gone 
through  fall  within  it.  This  will  probably  be  thought  too 
sweeping  an  assertion ;  but  we  shall  quickly  find  it  justified. 

5  95.  For  hero  we  have  to  note  the  further  all-important 


282  EVOLUTION  AND   DISSOLUTION. 

factj  that  every  cTiange  undergone  by  every  sensible  exist- 
ence, is  a  change  in  one  or  other  of  these  two  opposite 
directions.  Apparently  an  aggregate  which  has  passed  out 
of  some  originally  discrete  state  into  a  concrete  state,  there- 
after remains  for  an  indefinite  period  without  undergoing 
farther  integration,  and  without  beginning  to  disintegrate. 
But  this  is  untrue.  All  things  are  growing  or  decaying, 
accumulating  matter  or  wearing  away,  integrating  or  disin- 
tegrating. All  things  are  varying  in  their  temperatures, 
contracting  or  expanding,  integrating  or  disintegrating. 
Both  the  quantity  of  matter  contained  in  an  aggregate,  and 
the  quantity  of  motion  contained  in  it,  increase  or  decrease; 
and  increane  or  decrease  of  either  is  an  advance  towards 
greater  diffusion  or  greater  concentration.  Continued  losses 
or  gains  of  substance,  however  slow,  imply  ultimate  disap- 
pearance or  indefinite  enlargement ;  and  losses  or  gains  of 
the  insensible  motion  we  call  heat,  will,  if  continued,  pro- 
duce complete  integration  or  complete  disintegration.  The 
sun's  rays  falling  on  a  cold  mass,  augmenting  the  molecular 
motions  throughout  it,  and  causing  it  to  occupy  more  space, 
are  beginning  a  process  which  if  carried  far  will  disintegrate 
the  mass  into  liquid,  and  if  carried  farther  will  disintegrate 
the  liquid  into  gas ;  and  the  diminution  of  bulk  which  a 
•volume  of  gas  undergoes  as  it  parts  with  some  of  its  mole- 
cular motion,  is  a  diminution  which,  if  the  loss  of  molecular 
motion  proceeds,  will  presently  be  followed  by  liquefaction 
and  eventually  by  solidification.  And  since  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  an  absolutely  constant  temperature,  the  necessary 
inference  is  that  every  aggregate  is  at  every  moment  pro- 
gressing towards  cither  greater  concentration  or  greater 
diffusion. 

Not  only  does  all  change  consisting  in  the  addition  or  sub- 
traction of  matter  come  under  this  head;  and  not  only  does 
this  head  include^r^l  change  called  thermal  expansion  or 
contraction;  but  it  is  also,  in  a  general  way,  compreheusivo 
of  all  change  distinguished  as  transposition.     Every  internal 


EVOLUTION  AND   DISSOLUTION.  283 

redistribution  wMch.  leaves  tlie  component  molecules  or 
the  constituent  portions  of  a  mass  differently  placed  with 
respect  to  one  another,  is  sure  to  be  at  the  same  time  a 
progress  towards  integration  or  towards  disintegration — ^is 
sure  to  have  altered  in  some  degree  the  total  space  occupied. 
For  when  the  parts  have  been  moved  relatively  to  ono 
another,  the  chances  are  infinity  to  one  that  their  average 
distances  from  the  common  centre  of  the  aggregate  are  no 
longer  the  same.  Hence  whatever  be  the  special  character 
of  the  redistribution — ^be  it  that  of  superficial  accretion  or 
detachment,  be  it  that  of  general  expansion  or  contraction, 
be  it  that  of  re-arrangement,  it  is  always  an  advance  in 
integration  or  disintegration.  It  is  always  this,  though  it 
may  at  the  same  time  be  something  further. 

§  96.  A  general  idea  of  these  universal  actions  under 
their  simplest  aspects  having  been  obtained,  we  may  now 
consider  them  under  certain  relatively  complex  aspects. 
Changes  towards  greater  concentration  or  greater  diffusion, 
nearly  always  proceed  after  a  manner  much  more  involved 
than  that  above  described.  Thus  far  we  have  supposed  ono 
or  other  of  the  two  opposite  processes  to  go  on  alone — ^we 
have  supposed  an  aggregate  to  bo  either  losing  motion  and 
integrating  or  gaining  motion  and  disintegrating.  But 
though  it  is  true  that  every  change  furthers  one  or  other  of 
these  processes,  it  is  not  true  that  either  process  is  ever 
wholly  unqualified  by  the  other.  For  each  aggregate  is  at 
all  times  both  gaiuing  motion  and  losing  motion. 

Every  mass  from  a  grain  of  sand  to  a  planet,  radiates  heat 
to  other  masses,  and  absorbs  heat  radiated  by  other  masses; 
and  in  so  far  as  it  does  the  one  it  becomes  integrated,  while 
in  so  far  as  it  does  the  other  it  becomes  disintegrated. 
Ordinarily  in  inorganic  objects  this  double  process  works 
but  unobtrusive  effects^  Only  in  a  few  cases,  among  which 
that  of  a  cloud  is  the  most  familiar,  does  the  conflict 
produce  rapid  and  marked  transformations.     One  of  these 


284  EYOLUTION  AND   DISSOLUTION. 

floating  bodies  of  vapour  expands  and  dissipates,  if  tlie 
amount  of  molecular  motion  it  receives  from  tlie  Sun  and 
Earth,  exceeds  tliat  wMcli  it  loses  by  radiation  into  space  and 
towards  adjacent  surfaces;  wliile,  contrariwise,  if,  drifting 
over  cold  mountain  tops,  it  radiates  to  tliem  mucli  more 
heat  than  it  receives,  the  loss  of  molecular  motion  is  followed 
by  increasing  integration  of  the  vapour,  ending  in  the 
aggregation  of  it  into  liquid  and  the  fall  of  rain,  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  integration  or  the  disintegration  is  a  differ- 
ential result. 

In  living  aggregates,  and  more  especially  those  classed  as 
animals,  these  conflicting  processes  go  on  with  great  activity 
under  several  forms.  There  is  not  merely  what  we  may  call 
the  passive  integration  of  matter,  that  results  in  inanimate 
objects  from  simple  molecular  attractions ;  but  there  is  an 
active  integration  of  it  under  the  form  of  food.  In  addition  to 
that  passive  superfici^il  disintegration  which  inanimate  ob- 
jects suffer  from  external  agents,  animals  produce  in  them- 
selves active  internal  disintegration,  by  absorbing  such 
agents  into  their  substance.  "While,  like  inorganic  aggre- 
gates, they  passively  give  off  and  receive  motion,  they  are 
also  active  absorbers  of  motion  latent  in  food,  and  active  ex- 
penders  of  that  motion.  But  notwithstanding  this  compli- 
cation of  the  two  processes,  and  the  immense  exaltation  of 
the  conflict  between  them,  it  remains  true  that  there  is 
always  a  differential  progress  towards  either  integration  or 
disintegration.  During  the  earlier  part  of  the  cycle  of 
changes,  the  integration  predominates — ^there  goes  on  what 
we  call  growth.  The  middle  part  of  the  cycle  is  usually 
characterized,  not  by  equiHbrium  between  the  integrating 
and  disintegrating  processes,  but  by  alternate  excesses  of 
them.  And  the  cycle  closes  with  a  period  in  which  the  dis- 
integration, beginning  to  predominate,  eventually  puts  a 
stop  to  integration,  and  undoes  what  integration  had  origi- 
nally done.  At  no  moment  are  assimilation  and  waste  so 
balanced  that  no  increase  or  decrease  of  mass  is  going  on. 


EVOLUTION  AND   DISSOLUTION.  285 

Even  in  cases  where  one  part  is  growing  while  other  parts 
are  dwindling,  and  even  in  cases  where  dififerent  parts  aro 
differently  exposed  to  external  sources  of  motion  so  that 
some  are  expanding  while  others  are  contracting,  the  truth 
still  holds.  For  the  chances  are  infinity  to  one  against 
these  opposite  changes  balancing  one  another;  and  if  they 
do  not  balance  one  another,  the  aggregate  as  a  whole  is 
integrating  or  disintegrating. 

Everywhere  and  to  the  last,  therefore,  the  change  at  any 
moment  going  on  forms  a  part  of  one  or  other  of  the  two 
processes.  "While  the  general  history  of  every  aggregate  is 
definable  as  a  change  from  a  diffused  imperceptible  state  to 
a  concentrated  perceptible  state,  and  again  to  a  diffused  im- 
perceptible state;  every  detail  of  the  history  is  definable  aa 
a  part  of  either  the  one  change  or  the  other.  This,  then, 
must  be  that  universal  law  of  redistribution  of  matter  and 
motion,  which  serves  at  once  to  unify  the  seemingly  diverse 
groups  of  changes,  as  well  as  the  entire  course  of  each  group. 

§  97.  The  processes  thus  everywhere  in  antagonism,  and 
everywhere  gaining  now  a  temporary  and  now  a  more  or  less 
permanent  triumph  the  one  over  the  other,  we  call  Evolution 
and  Dissolution.  Evolution  under  its  simplest  and  most 
general  aspect  is  the  integration  of  matter  and  concomitant 
dissipation  of  motion;  while  Dissolution  is  the  absorption. of 
motion  and  concominant  disintegration  of  matter. 

These  titles  are  by  no  means  all  that  is  desirable;  or 
rather  we  may  say  that  while  the  last  answers  its  purpose 
tolerably  well,  the  first  is  open  to  grave  objections.  Evolu- 
tion has  other  meanings,  some  of  which  are  incongruous 
with,  and  some  even  directly  opposed  to,  the  meaning  hero 
given  to  it.  The  evolution  of  a  gas  is  literally  an  absorp- 
tion of  motion  and  disintegration  of  matter,  which  is  exactly 
the  reverse  of  that  which  we  here  call  Evolution — ^is  that 
which  we  here  call  Dissolution.  As  ordinarily  understood,, 
to  evolve  is  to  unfold,  to  open  and  expand,  to  throw  out,  to 


286  EVOLUTION  AND   DISSOLUTION. 

emit;  whereas  as  wo  understand  it^  tlio  act  of  evolving, 
tliougli  it  implies  increase  of  a  concrete  aggregate,  and  in 
so  far  an  expansion  of  it,  implies  tliat  its  component  matter 
lias  passed  from  a  more  diffused  to  a  more  concentrated 
state — ^has  contracted.  Tlie  antithetical  word  Involution 
would  mucli  more  truly  express  tlie  nature  of  tlie  process ; 
and  would,  indeed,  describe  better  tlie  secondary  characters 
of  the  process  which  we  shall  have  to  deal  with  presently. 
We  are  obliged,  however,  notwithstanding  the  liabilities  to 
confusion  that  must  result  from  these  unlike  and  even  con- 
tradictory meanings,  to  use  Evolution  as  antithetical  to  Dis- 
solution. The  word  is  now  so  widely  recognized  as  signify- 
ing, not,  indeed,  the  general  process  above  described,  but 
sundry  of  the  most  conspicuous  varieties  of  it,  and  certain  of 
its  secondary  but  most  remarkable  accompaniments,  that  wo 
cannot  now  substitute  another  word.  All  we  can  do  is 
carefully  to  define  the  interpretation  to  be  given  to  it. 

"While,  then,  we  shall  by  Dissolution  everywhere  mean  the 
process  tacitly  implied  by  its  ordinary  meaning — the  ab- 
sorption of  motion  and  disintegration  of  matter ;  we  shall 
everywhere  mean  by  Evolution,  the  process  which  is  always 
an  integration  of  matter  and  dissipation  of  motion,  but 
which,  as  we  shall  now  see^  is  in  most  cases  much  more 
than  this. 


CHAPTER  Xm. 

SIMPLE   AND    COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

§  98.  Wliere  the  only  forces  at  work  are  those  directly 
tending  to  produce  aggregation  or  diffusion,  the  whole  his- 
tory of  an  aggregate  will  comprise  no  more  than  the  ap- 
proaches of  its  components  towards  their  common  centre 
and  their  recessions  from  their  common  centre.  The  process 
of  Evolution,  including  nothing  beyond  what  was  described 
at  the  outset  of  the  last  chapter,  will  be  simple. 

Again,  in  cases  where  the  forces  which  cause  movements 
towards  a  common  centre  are  greatly  in  excess  of  all  other 
forces,  any  changes  additional  to  those  constituting  aggre- 
gation will  be  comparatively  insignificant — there  will  be 
integration  scarcely  at  all  modified  by  further  kinds  of  re- 
distribution. 

Or  if,  because  of  the  smallness  of  the  mass  to  be  integrated, 
or  because  of  the  little  motion  the  mass  receives  from  with- 
out in  return  for  the  motion  it  loses,  the  integration  proceeds 
rapidly;  there  will  similarly  be  wrought  but  insignificant 
effects  on  the  integrating  mass  by  incident  forces,  even 
though  these  are  considerable. 

But  when,  conversely,  the  integration  is  but  slow;  either 
because  the  quantity  of  motion  contained  in  the  aggregate 
is  relatively  great;  or  because,  though  the  quantity  of 
motion  which  each  part  possesses  is  not  relatively  great,  the 
large  size  of  the  aggregate  prevents  easy  dissipation  of  the 
motion;   or  because,  though  motion  is  rapidly  lost  more 


288  SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

motion  is  rapidly  received;  then,  otter  forces  will  cause 
in  tlie  aggregate  appreciable  modifications.  Along  witli  tlia 
change  constituting  integration,  there  will  take  place  sup- 
plementary changes.  Tho  Evolution,  instead  of  beino* 
simple,  will  be  compound. 

The  several  propositions  thus  briefly  enunciated  require 
some  explanation. 

§  99.  So  long  as  a  body  moves  freely  through  space, 
every  force  that  acts  on  it  produces  an  equivalent  in  the 
shape  of  some  change  in-  its  motion.  No  matter  how  high 
its  velocity,  the  slightest  lateral  traction  or  resistance  causes 
it  to  deviate  from  its  line  of  movement — causes  it  to  move 
towards  the  new  source  of  traction  or  away  from  the  new 
source  of  resistance,  just  as  much  as  it  would  do  had  it  no 
other  motion.  And  the  effect  of  the  perturbing  influence 
goes  on  accumulating  in  the  ratio  of  the  squares  of  the  times 
during  which  its  action  continues  uniform.  This  same  body, 
however,  will,  if  it  is  united  in  certain  ways  with  other 
bodies,  cease  to  be  moveable  by  small  incident  forces. 
When  it  is  held  feist  by  gravitation  or  cohesion,  these 
small  incident  forces,  instead  of  giving  it  some  relative 
motion  through  space,  are  otherwise  dissipated. 

What  hero  holds  of  masses,  holds,  in  a  qualified  way,  of 
the  sensible  parts  of  masses,  and  of  molecules.  As  the 
sensible  parts  of  a  mass,  and  the  molecules  of  a  mass,  are, 
by  virtue  of  their  aggregation,  not  perfectly  free,  it  is  not 
true  of  each  of  them,  as  of  a  body  moving  through  space, 
that  every  incident  force  produces  an  equivalent  change  of 
position :  part  of  the  force  goes  in  working  other  changes. 
But  in  proportion  as  the  parts  or  the  molecules  are  feebly 
bound  together,  incident  forces  efiect  marked  re-arrange* 
ments  among  them.  At  tho  one  extreme,  where  the 
integration  is  so  slight  that  the  parts,  sensible  or  insensible, 
are  almost  independent,  they  are  ahnost  completely  amen- 
able to  every  additional  action;    and  along  with  tho  con- 


SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLtTTIO!!.  289 

centetion  going  on  there  go  on  other  re-distributlons. 
Contrariwise,  where  the  parts  have  approached  within  such 
small  distances  that  what  wo  call  the  attraction  of  cohesion 
is  great,  additional  actions,  unless  intense,  cease  to  have 
much  power  to  cause  secondary  re-arrangements.  The 
firmly-united  parts  no  longer  readily  change  their  relative 
positions  in  obedience  to  small  perturbing  influences ;  but 
each  small  perturbing  influence  usually  does  little  or  nothing 
more  than  temporarily  modify  the  insensible  molecular 
motions. 

,  How  may  we  best  express  this  difierence  in  the  most 
general  terms  ?  An  aggregate  that  is  widely  difi'used,  or  but 
little  integrated,  is  an  aggregate  that  contains  a  large  quantity 
of  motion — actual  or  potential  or  both.  An  aggregate  that 
has  become  completely  integrated  or  dense,  is  one  that  con- 
tains comparatively  little  motion:  most  of  the  motion  its 
parts  once  had  has  been  lost  during  the  integration  that  has 
rendered  it  dense.  Hence,  other  things  equal,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  quantity  of  motion  which  an  aggregate  contains 
will  be  the  quantity  of  secondary  change  in  the  arrangement 
of  its  parts  that  accompanies  the  primary  change  in  their 
an-angement.  Hence  also,  other  things  equal,  in  proportion  to 
the  time  during  which  the  internal  motion  is  retained,  will  be 
the  quantity  of  this  secondary  re-distribution  that  accompanies 
the  primary  re-distribution.  It  matters  not  how  these  con- 
ditions are  fulfilled.  Whether  the  internal  motion  continues 
great  because  the  components  are  of  a  kind  that  will  not 
readily  aggregate,  or  because  suiTOunding  conditions  pre- 
vent them  from  parting  with  their  motion,  or  because  the 
loss  of  their  motion  is  impeded  by  the  size  of  the  aggregate 
they  form,  or  because  they  directly  or  indirectly  obtaiL, 
more  motion  in  place  of  that  which  they  lose ;  it  through- 
out remains  true  that  much  retained  internal  motion  mus* 
render  secondary  re-distributions  facile,  and  that  long  re- 
tention of  it  must  make  possible  an  accumulation  of  such 
Bocondary  re-distributions.  Conversely,  the  non-fulfJmout  of 
14 


290  SIMPLE  AND   COMPOUND    EVOLUTION. 

these  conditions,,  however  caused^  entails  opposite  results. 
Be  it  tliat  tlie  components  of  tlie  aggregate  have  special 
aptitudes  to  integrate  quickly,  or  be  it  that  the  smallness  of 
the  aggregate  formed  of  them  permits  the  easy  escape  of 
their  motion,  or  be  it  that  they  receive  little  or  no  motion 
in  exchange  for  that  which  they  part  with ;  it  alike  holds 
that  but  little  secondary  re- distribution  can  accompany  the 
primary  re-distribution  constituting  their  integration. 

These  abstract  propositions  will  not  be  fully  understood 
without  illustrations.  Let  us,  before  studying  simple  and 
compound  Evolution  as  thus  determined,  contemplate  a  few 
cases  in  which  the  quantity  of  internal  motion  is  artificially 
changed,  and  note  the  effects  on  the  re-arrangement  of 
parts. 

§  100.  We  may  fitly  begin  with  a  familiar  experience, 
introducing  the  general  principle  under  a  rude  but  easily 
comprehensible  form.  When  a  vessel  has  been  filled  to  the 
brim  with  loose  fragments,  shaking  the  vessel  causes  them 
to  settle  down  into  less  space,  so  that  more  may  be  put  in. 
And  when  among  the  fragments  there  are  some  of  much 
greater  specific  gravity  than  the  rest,  these,  in  the  course  of 
a  prolonged  shaking,  find  their  way  to  the  bottom.  Wliat 
now  is  the  meaning  of  such  results,  when  expressed  in 
general  terms  ?  "We  have  a  group  of  units  acted  on  by  an 
incident  force — the  attraction  of  the  Earth.  So  long  as 
these  units  are  not  agitated,  this  incident  force  produces  no 
changes  in  their  relative  positions ;  agitate  them,  and  im- 
mediately their  loose  arrangement  passes  into  a  more  com- 
pact arrangement.  Again,  so  long  as  they  are  not  agitated, 
the  incident  force  cannot  separate  the  heavier  units  from  tho 
lighter;  agitate  them,  and  immediately  the  heavier  units 
begin  to  segregate.  Mechanical  disturbances  of 

more  minute  kinds,  acting  on  the  parts  of  much  denser  ag- 
gregates, produce  analogous  cfiects.  A  piece  of  iron  which, 
when  it  leaves  the  workshop,  is  fibrous  in  structure,  be- 


SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION*  2^1 

comes  crystalline  if  exposed  to  a  perpetual  jar.  The  polar 
forces  mutually  exercised  by  tlie  atoms,  fail  to  change  tlie 
disorderly  arrangement  into  an  orderly  arrangement  wlule 
the  atoms  are  relatively  quiescent ;  but  these  fSrces  succeed 
in  re-arranging  them  when  the  atoms  are  kept  in  a  state  of 
intestine  agitation.  Similarly,  the  fact  that  a  bar  of  steel 
suspended  in  the  magnetic  meridian  and  repeatedly  struck, 
becomes  magnetized,  is  ascribed  to  a  re-arrangement  of  par- 
ticles that  is  produced  by  the  magnetic  force  of  the  Earth 
when  vibrations  are  propagated  through  them,  but  is  not 
otherwise   produced.  Now   imperfectly   as   these 

cases  parallel  the  mass  of  those  we  are  considering,  they 
nevertheless  serve  roughly  to  illustrate  the  effect  which 
adding  to  the  quantity  of  motion  an  aggregate  contains,  has 
in  facilitating  re-arrangement  of. its  parts. 

More  fully  illustrative  are  the  instances  in  which,  by  arti- 
ficially adding  to  or  subtracting  from  that  molecular  motion 
which  we  call  its  heat,  we  give  an  aggregate  increased  or 
diminished  facility  of  re-arranging  its  molecules.  The  pro- 
cess of  tempering  steel  or  annealing  glass,  shows  us  that 
internal  re-distribution  is  aided  by  insensible  vibrations,  as 
w^e  have  just  seen  it  to  be  by  sensible  vibrations.  When 
some  molten  glass  is  dropped  into  water,  and  when  its  out- 
side is  thus,  by  sudden  solidification,  prevented  from  par- 
taking in  that  contraction  which  the  subsequent  cooling  of 
the  inside  tends  to  produce;  the  units  are  left  in  such  a 
state  of  tension,  that  the  mass  flies  into  fragments  if  a  small 
portion  of  it  be  broken  off.  But  if  this  mass  be  kept  for  a 
day  or  two  at  a  considerable  heat,  though  a  heat  not  suffi- 
cient to  alter  its  form  or  produce  any  sensible  diminution  of 
hardness,  this  extreme  brittleness  *  disappears  :  the  com- 
ponent particles  being  thrown  into  greater  agitation,  the 
tensile  forces  are  enabled  to  re-arrange  them  into  a  state  of 
equilibrium.  Much  more  conspicuously  do  we  see 

tlie  effect  of  the  insensible  motion  called  heat,  where  the 
re-arrangement  of  parts  taking  place  is  that  of  visible  segre^ 


292  SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

gation.  An  instance  is  furnislied  by  the  subsidence  of  fine 
precipitates.  These  sink  down  very  slowly  from  solutions 
that  are  cold ;  while  warm  solutions  deposit  them  with  com> 
parative  rapidity.  That  is  to  say_,  exalting  the  molecular 
oscillation  throughout  the  mass,  allows  the  suspended 
particles  to  separate  more  readily  from  the  particles  of 
fluid.  The  influence  of  heat  on  chemical  changes 

is  so  familiar,  that  examples  are  scarcely  needed.  Be  the 
substances  concerned  gaseous,  liquid,  or  solid,  it  equally  holds 
that  their  chemical  unions  and  disunions  are  aided  by  rise 
of  temperature.  Affinities  which  do  not  suffice  to  effect  the 
re-arrangement  of  mixed  units  that  are  in  a  state  of  feeble 
agitation,  suffice  to  effect  it  when  the  agitation  is  raised  to  a 
certain  point.  And  so  long  as  this  molecular  motion  is  not 
great  enough  to  prevent  those  chemical  o^^hesions  which  the 
affinities  tend  to  produce,  increase  of  it  gives  increased  faci- 
lity of  chemical  re-arrangement. 

Another  class  of  facts  may  be  adduced  which,  though  not 
apparently,  are  really  illustrative  of  the  same  general  truth. 
Other  things  equal,  the  liquid  form  of  matter  implies  a 
greater  quantity  of  contained  motion  than  the  solid  form — 
the  liquidity  is  itself  a  consequence  of  such  greater  quantity. 
Hence,  an  aggregate  made  up  partly  of  liquid  matter  and 
partly  of  solid  matter,  contains  a  greater  quantity  of  motion 
than  one  which,  otherwise  like  it,  is  made  up  wholly  of 
solid  matter. .  It  is  inferable,  then,  that  a  liquid-solid 
aggregate,  or,  as  we  commonly  call  it,  a  plastic  aggregate, 
will  admit  of  internal  redistribution  with  comparative  faci- 
lity ;  and  the  inference  is  verified  by  experience.  A  magma, 
of  unlike  substances  ground  up  with  water,  while  it  con- 
tinues thin  allows  a  settlement  of  its  heavier  components — a 
separation  of  them  from  the  lighter.  As  the  water  evapo- 
rates this  separation  is  impeded,  and  ceases  when  the 
magma  becomes  very  thick.  But  even  when  it  has  reached 
the  semi-solid  state  in  which  gravitation  fails  to  cause 
further  segregation   of  its  mixed  components,  other  forces 


WMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION,  293 

may  still  continue  to  produce  segregation :  witness  tlie  fact 
to  wliicli  attention  was  first  dra'wn  by  Mr.  Babbage,  tbat 
wlien  tlie  pasty  mixture  of  ground  flints  and  kaolin^  pre- 
pared for  the  manufacture  of  porcelain^  is  kept  some  time, 
it  becomes  gritty  and  unfit  for  use,  in  consequence  of  tbe 
particles  of  silica  separating  tbemselyes  from  the  rest,  and 
uniting  together  in  grains;  or  witness  the  fact  known  to 
every  housewife,  that  in  long-kept  currant-jelly  the  sugar 
takes  the  shape  of  imbedded  crystals. 

ISTo  matter  then  under  what  form  the  motion  contained  by 
an  aggregate  exists — ^be  it  mere  mechanical  agitation,  or  the 
mechanical  vibrations  such  as  produce  sound,  be  it  mole- 
cular motion  absorbed  from  without,  or  the  constitutional 
molecular  motion  of  some  component  liquid,  the  same  truth 
holds  throughout.  Incident  forces  work  secondary  re-distri- 
butions easily  when  the  contained  motion  is  large  in  quan- 
tity ;  and  work  them  with  increasing  difficulty  as  the  con- 
tained motion  diminishes. 

§  101.  Yet  another  class  of  facts  that  fall  within  the 
same  generalization,  little  as  they  seem  related  to  it,  must 
be  indicated  before  proceeding.  They  are  those  presented 
by  certain  contrasts  in  chemical  stability.  Speaking  gene- 
rally, stable  compounds  contain  comparatively  little  mole- 
cular motion ;  and  in  proportion  as  the  contained  molecular 
motion  is  great  the  instability  is  great. 

The  common  and  marked  illustration  of  this  to  be  first 
named,  is  that  chemical  stability  decreases  as  temperature 
increases.  Compounds  of  which  the  elements  are  strongly 
anited  and  compounds  of  which  the  elements  are  feebly 
united,  are  alike  in  this,  that  raising  their  heats  or  increasing 
the  quantities  of  their  contained  molecular  motion,  dimi- 
aishes  the  strengths  of  the  unions  of  their  elements ;  and  by 
continually  adding  to  the  quantity  of  contained  molecular 
motion,  a  point  is  in  each  case  reached  at  which  the 
•jhemical  union  is  destroyed.    That  is  to  say,  the  re-distribu* 


294.  SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

tion  of  matter  wMcIl  constitutes  simple  cTiemical  decompo- 
sition, is  easy  in  proportion  as  the  quantity  of  contained 
motion  is  great.  Tlie  like  holds  with  double  de- 

compositions. Two  compounds,  A  B  and  C  D,  mingled 
together  and  kept  at  a  low  temperature,  may  severally 
remain  unchanged — the  cross  affinities  between  their  com- 
ponents may  fail  to  cause  re-distribution.  Increase  the  heat 
of  the  mixture,  or  add  to  the  molecular  motion  throughout 
it,  and  re-distribution  takes  place ;  ending  in  the  formation 
of  the  compounds,  A  C  and  B  D. 

Another  chemical  truth  having  a  like  imphcation,  is 
that  chemical  elements  which,  as  they  ordinarily  exist, 
contain  much  motion,  have  combinations  less  stable  than 
those  of  which  the  elements,  as  they  ordinarily  exist,  contain 
little  motion.  The  gaseous  form  of  matter  implies  a  rela- 
tively large  amount  of  molecular  motion;  while  the  solid 
form  implies  a  relatively  small  amount  of  molecular  motion. 
What  are  the  characters  of  their  respective  compounds? 
The  compounds  which  the  permanent  gases  form  with  ono 
another,  cannot  resist  high  temperatures  :  most  of  them  are 
easily  decomposed  by  heat;  and  at  a  red  heat,  even  the 
stronger  ones  yield  up  their  components.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  chemical  unions  between  elements  that  are  solid 
except  at  very  high  temperatures,  are  extremely  stable.  In 
many,  if  not  indeed  in  most,  cases,  such  combined  elements 
are  not  separable  by  any  heat  we  can  produce. 

There  is,  again,  the  relation,  which  appears  to  have  a 
kindred  meaning,  between  instability  and  amount  of  com- 
position. ^'  In  general,  the  molecular  heat  of  a  compound 
increases  with  the  degree  of  complexity.''  With  increase  of 
complexity  there  also  goes  increased  facility  of  decomposi- 
tion. Whence  it  follows  that  molecules  which  contain 
much  motion  in  virtue  of  their  complexity,  are  those  of 
which  the  components  are  most  readily  re-distributed.  This 
holds  not  only  of  the  complexity  resulting  from  the  union  of 
saveral  unlike  elements ;  but  it  holds  also  of  the  complexity 


SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION.  2(^5 

resulting  from  the  union  of  tlie  same  elements  in  liiglicr 
multiples.  Matter  lias  two  solid  states,  distinguislied  as 
crystalloid  and  colloid ;  of  wMcli  tlie  first  is  due  to  union  of 
tlie  individual  atoms  or  molecules,  and  tlie  second  to  tlio 
union  of  groups  of  such,  individual  atoms  or  molecules ;  and 
of  which  the  first  is  stable  and  the  second  unstable. 

But  the  most  striking  and  conclusive  illustration  is  fur- 
nished by  the  combinations  into  which  nitrogen  enters. 
These  have  the  two  characters  of  being  specially  unstable 
and  of  containing  specially  great  quantities  of  motion.  A 
recently-ascertained  peculiarity  of  nitrogen,  is,  that  instead 
of  giving  out  heat  when  it  combines  with  other  elements,  it 
absorbs  heat.  That  is  to  say,  besides  carrying  with  it  into 
the  liquid  or  solid  compound  it  forms,  the  motion  which 
previously  constituted  it  a  gas,  it  takes  up  additional 
motion ;  and  where  the  other  element  with  which  it  unites 
is  gaseous,  the  molecular  motion  proper  to  this,  also,  is 
locked  up  in  the  compound.  Now  these  nitrogen-com- 
pounds are  unusually  prone  to  decomposition ;  and  the  de- 
compositions of  many  of  them  take  place  with  extreme 
violence.  All  our  explosive  substances  are  nitrogenous — 
the  most  terribly  destructive  of  them  all,  chloride  of  nitro- 
gen, being  one  which  contains  the  immense  quantity  of 
motion  proper  to  its  component  gases,  plus  a  certain  further 
quantity  of  motion. 

Clearly  these  general  chemical  truths,  are  parts  of  the 
more  general  physical  truth  we  are  tracing  out.  We  see 
in  them  that  what  holds  of  sensible  aggregates,  holds  also 
of  the  insensible  aggregates  we  call  molecules.  Like  the 
aggregates  formed  of  them,  these  ultimate  aggregates  be- 
come more  or  less  integrated  according  as  they  lose  or  gain 
motion ;  and  like  them  also,  according  as  they  contain,  much 
or  little  motion,  they  are  liable  to  undergo  secondary  re-dis- 
tributions of  parts  along  with  the  primary  re-distribution. 

§  102.  And  now  having  got  this  general  principle  clearly 


298  SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

into  view,  let  us  go  on  to  observe  how,  in  conformity  with 
it.  Evolution  becomes,  according  to  the  conditions,  either 
simple  or  compound. 

If  a  little  sal-ammoniac,  or  other  volatile  solid,  be  heated, 
it  is  disintegrated  by  the  absorbed  molecular  motion,  and 
rises  in  gas.  When  the  gas  so  produced,  coming  in  con- 
tact with  a  cold  surface,  loses  its  excess  of  molecular  motion, 
integration  takes  place — the  substance  assumes  the  form  of 
crystals.  This  is  a  case  of  simple  evolution.  The  process 
of  concentration  of  matter  and  dissipation  of  motion  does 
not  here  proceed  in  a  gradual  manner — does  not  pass 
through  stages  occupying  considerable  periods;  but  the 
molecular  motion  which  reduced  it  to  the  gaseous  state 
being  dissipated,  the  matter  passes  suddenly  to  a  com- 
pletely solid  state.  The  result  is  that  along  with  this 
primary  re-distribution  there  go  on  no  appreciable  secondary 
re-distributions.  Substantially  the  same  thing  holds  with 
crystals  deposited  from  solutions.  Loss  of  that  molecular 
motion  which,  down  to, a  certain  point,  keeps  the  molecules 
from  uniting,  and  sudden  solidification  when  the  loss  goes 
below  that  point,  occur  here  as  before ;  and  here  as  before, 
the  absence  of  a  period  during  which  the  molecules  are 
partially  free  and  gradually  losing  their  freedom,  is  accom- 
panied by  the  absence  of  supplementary  re-arrangements. 

Mark,  conversely,  what  happens  when  the  concentration 
is  slow.  A  gaseous  mass  losing  its  heat,  and  undergoing  a 
consequent  decrease  of  bulk,  is  not  subject  only  to  this 
change  which  brings  its  parts  nearer  to  their  common 
centre,  but  also  to  many  simultaneous  changes.  The  great 
quantity  of  molecular  motion  contained  in  it,  giving,  as  we 
have  seen  that  it  must,  great  molecular  mobility,  renders 
every  part  sensitive  to  every  incident  force ;  and,  as  a  result^ 
its  parts  have  various  motions  besides  that  implied  by  their 
progressing  integration.  Indeed  these  secondary  motions 
which  we  know  as  currents,  are  so  important  and  conspicuous 
as  quite  to  subordinate  the  primary  motion.  Sup- 


emPLE  A^'D  COMrOUND  EVOLUTION.  297 

pose  tliat  presently,  the  loss  of  molecular  motion  has  reached 
that  point  at  which  the  gaseous  state  can  no  longer  bo 
maintained,  and  condensation  follows.  Under  their  more 
closely-united  form,  the  parts  of  the  aggregate  display, 
to  a  considerable  degree,  the  same  phenomena  as  before. 
The  molecular  motion  and  accompanying  molecular  mobility 
implied  by  the  liquid  state,  permit  easy  re-arrangement; 
and  hence,  along  with  further  contraction  of  volume,  con- 
sequent on  further  loss  of  motion,  there  go  on  rapid  and 
marked  changes  in  the  relative  positions  of  parts — local 
streams  produced  by  slight  disturbing  forces.  But 

now,  assuming  the  substance  to  be  formed  of  molecules  that 
have  not  those  peculiarities  leading  to  the  sudden  inte- 
gration which  we  call  crystallization,  what  happens  as  the 
molecular  motion  further  decreases  ?  The  liquid  thickens 
— its  parts  cease  to  be  relatively  moveable  among  ono 
another  with  ease ;  and  the  transpositions  caused  by  feeble 
incident  forces  become  comparatively  slow.  Little  by  little 
the  currents  are  stopped,  but  the  mass  still  continues  modi- 
fiable by  stronger  incident  forces.  Gravitation  makes  it 
bend  or  spread  out  when  not  supported  on  all  sides ;  and  it 
may  easily  be  indented.  As  it  cools,  however,  it .  continues 
to  grow  stiffer  as  we  say — less  capable  of  having  its  parts 
changed  in  their  relative  positions.  And  eventually, 
further  loss  of  heat  rendering  it  quite  hard,  its  parts  are 
no  longer  appreciably  re-arrangeable  by  any  save  violent 
actions.  ^ 

Among  inorganic  aggregates,  then,  secondary  re-distribu- 
tions accompany  the  primary  re-distribution,  throughout  the 
whole  process  of  concentration,  where  this  is  gradual. 
During  the  gaseous  and  liquid  stages,  the  secondary  re-dis- 
tributions, rapid  and  extensive  as  they  are,  leave  no  traces— 
the  molecular  mobility  being  such  as  to  negative  the  fixed 
arrangement  of  parts  we  call  structure.  On  approaching 
solidity  we  arrive  at  a  condition  called  plastic,  in  which  re- 
distributions can  still  bo  made,  though  much  less  easily; 


298  SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

and  in  wliicli,  being  changeable  less  easily,  tbey  Lave  a 
certain  persistence — a  persistence  wbicli  can,  however,  be- 
come decided,  only  where  further  solidification  stops  further 
re-distribution. 

Here  we  see,  in  the  first  place,  what  are  the  conditions 
under  which  Evolution  instead  of  being  simple  becomes 
compound,  while  we  see,  in  the  second  place,  how  the  com- 
pounding of  it  can  be  carried  far  only  under  conditions 
more  special  than  any  hitherto  contemplated ;  since,  on  the 
one  hand,  a  large  amount  of  secondary  re-distribu4ion  is  pos- 
sible only  where  there  is  a  great  quantity  of  contained 
motion,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  these  re-distributions  can 
have  permanence  only  where  the  contained  motion  has  be- 
come small — opposing  conditions  which  seem  to  negative 
any  large  amount  of  permanent  secondary  re-distribution. 

§  103.  And  now  we  are  in  a  position  to  observe  how  these 
apparently  contradictory  conditions  are  reconciled;  and 
how,  by  the  reconciliation  of  them,  permanent  secondary  re- 
distributions immense  in  extent  are  made  possible.  We 
shall  appreciate  the  distinctive  peculiarity  of  the  aggregates 
classed  as  organic,  in  which  Evolution  becomes  so  highly 
compounded ;  and  shall  see  that  this  peculiarity  consists  in 
the  combination  of  matter  into  a  form  embodying  an  enor- 
mous amount  of  motion  at  the  same  time  that  it  has  a  great 
degree  of  concentration. 

Fop  notwithstanding  its  semi-solid  consistence,  organic 
matter  contains  molecular  motion  locked  up  in  each  of  tho 
ways  above  contemplated  separately.  Let  us  note  its  several 
constitutional  traits.  Three  out  of  its  four  chief 

components  are  gaseous ;  and  in  their  uncombined  states  tho 
gases  united  in  it  have  so  much  molecular  motion  that  they 
are  incondensible.  Hence  as  the  characters  of  elements, 
though  disguised,  cannot  be  absolutely  lost  in  combinations, 
it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  protein-molecule  concentrates  a 
comparatively  largo   amount   of  motion  in  a  small  space. 


BIMPLE  AND  COMPOUND  EVOLUTION,  29S 

And  since  many  equivalents  of  tliese  gaseous  elements  unite 
in  one  of  tliese  protein-molecules^  tliere  must  be  in  it  a  large 
quantity  of  relative  motion  in  addition  to  that  wliicli  the 
ultimate  atoms  possess.  Moreover,  organic  matter 

has  the  peculiarity  that  its  molecules  are  aggregated 
into  the  colloid  and  not  into  the  crystalloid  arrangement ; 
forming,  as  is  supposed,  clusters  of  clusters  which  have 
movements  in  relation  to  one  another.  Here,*  then, ' 
is  a  further  mode  in  which  molecular  motion  is  in- 
cluded. Yet  again,  these  compounds  of  which 
the  essential  parts  of  organisms  are  built,  are  nitro- 
genous ;  and  we  have  lately  seen  it  to  be  a  peculiarity  of 
nitrogenous  compounds,  that  instead  of  giving  out  heat 
during  their  formation  they  absorb  heat.  To  all  the  mole- 
cular motion  possessed  by  gaseous  nitrogen,  is  added  more 
motion;  and  the  whole  is  concentrated  in  solid  pro- 
tein. Organic  aggregates  are  very  generally  dis- 
tinguished, too,  by  having  much  insensible  motion  in  a 
free  state — the  motion  we  call  heat.  Though  in  many  cases 
the  quantity  of  this  contained  insensible  motion  is  incon- 
siderable, in  other  cases  a  temperature  greatly  above  that 
of  the  environment  is  constantly  maintained.  Onco 
more,  there  is  the  still  larger  quantity  of  motion  embodied  by 
the  water  that  permeates  organic  matter.  It  is  this  which, 
giving  to  the  water  its  high  molecular  mobility,  gives 
mobility  to  the  organic  molecules  partially  suspended  in  it ; 
and  preserves  that  plastic  condition  which  so  greatly  facili- 
tates re-distribution. 

From  these  several  statements,  no  adequate  idea  can  bo 
formed  of  the  extent  to  which  living  organic  substance  is 
thus  distinguished  from  other  substances  having  like  sen- 
sible forms  of  aggregation.  But  some  approximation  to  such 
an  idea  may  be  obtained  by  contrasting  the  bulk  occupied 
by  this  substance,  with  the  bulk  which  its  constituents  would 
occupy  if  uncombined.  An  accurate  comparison  cannot  bo 
made  in  the  present  state  of  science.   What  expansion  would 


300  SIMPLE   AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

occur  if  the  constituents  of  the  nitrogenous  compounds  could 
be  divorced  without  the  addition  of  motion  from  without,  is 
too  complex  a  question  to  be  answered.  But  respecting 
the  constituents  of  that  which  forms  some  four-fifths  of  the 
total  weight  of  an  ordinary  animal — ^its  water — a  tolerably 
definite  answer  can  be  given.  Were  the  oxygen  and  hydro- 
gen of  water  to  lose  their  affinitieSj  and  were  no  molecular 
motion  supplied  to  them  beyond  that  contained  in  water 
at  blood-heat,  they  would  assume  a  volume  twenty  times  that 
of  the  water.*  AVhether  protein  under  like  conditions  would 
expand  in  a  greater  or  a  less  degree,  must  remain  an  open 
question ;  but  remembering  the  gaseous  nature  of  three  out 
of  its  four  chief  components,  remembering  the  above- 
named  peculiarity  of  nitrogenous  compounds,  remembering 
the  high  multiples  and  the  colloidal  form,  we  may  con- 
clude that  the  expansion  would  be  great.  We  shall  not 
be  far  wrong,  therefore,  in  saying  that  the  elements  of  the 
human  body  if  suddenly  disengaged  from  one  another, 
would  occupy  a  score  times  the  space  they  do :  the  move- 
ments of  their  atoms  would  compel  this  wide  diffusion. 
Thas  the  essential  characteristic  of  living  orgamc  matter, 
is  that  it  unites  this  large  quantity  of  contained  motion  with 
a  degree  of  cohesion  that  permits  temporary  fixity  of  ar- 
rangement. 

§  104.  Further  proofs  that  the  secondary  re-distributions 
which  make  Evolution  compound,  depend  for  their  possibility 
on  the  reconciliation  of  these  conflicting  conditions,  are 
yielded  by  comparisons  of  organic  aggregates  with  one 
another.  Besides  seeing  that  organic  aggregates  differ  from 
other  aggregates,  alike  in  the  quantity  of  motion  they  con- 
tain and  the  amount  of  re-arrangement  of  parts  that  accom- 
panies their  progressive  integration;  we  shall  see  that  among 


•  I  am  indebted  for  this  result  to  Dr.  Frankland,  who  has  been  gogd  enough 
tc  have  the  calculation  made  for  me. 


SIMPLE  AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION.  301 

orgtinic  aggregates  themselves,  differences  in  tlie  quantities 
of  contained  motion  are  accompanied  by  differences  in  tlic 
amounts  of  re- distribution. 

The  contrasts  among  organisms  in  cliemical  composition 
yield  us  tbe  first  illustration.  Animals  are  distinguished 
from  plants  by  their  far  greater  amounts  of  structure,  as  well 
as  by  the  far  greater  rapidity  Avith  which  changes  of  struc- 
ture go  on  in  them;  and  in  comparison  with  plants,  animals 
are  at  the  same  time  conspicuous  for  containing  immensely 
larger  proportions  of  those  highly-compounded  nitrogenous 
molecules  in  which  so  much  motion  is  locked  up.  So,  too,  is 
it  with  the  contrasts  between  the  different  parts  of  each 
animal.  Though  certain  nitrogenous  parts,  as  cartilage,  are 
inert,  yet  the  parts  in  which  the  secondary  re-distributions 
have  gone  on,  and  are  ever  going  on,  most  actively,  are  those 
in  which  the  most  highly-compounded  molecules  pre- 
dominate; and  parts  which,  like  the  deposits  of  fat,  consist 
of  relatively-simple  molecules,  are  seats  of  but  little  structuro 
and  but  little  change. 

Wo  find  clear  proof,  too,  that  the  continuance  of  the  se- 
condary re-distributions  by  which  organic  aggregates  are  so 
remarkably  distinguished,  depends  on  the  presence  of  that 
motion  contained  in  the  water  diffused  through  them; 
and  that,  other  things .  equal,  there  is  a  direct  relation  be- 
tween the  amount  of  re-distribution  and  the  amount  of 
contained  water.  The  evidences  may  be  put  in  three 
groups.  There  is  the  familiar  fact  that  a  plant  has 

its  formative  changes  arrested  by  cutting  off  the  supply  of 
water:  the  primary  re-distribution  continues — it  withers  and 
shrinks  or  becomes  more  integrated — ^but  the  secondary  re- 
distributions cease.  There  is  the  less  familiar,  but  no  less 
certain,  fact,  that  the  like  result  occurs  in  animals — occurs, 
indeed,  as  might  be  expected,  after  a  relatively  smaller  di- 
minution of  water.  Certain  of  the  lower  animals  furnish  ad- 
ditional proofs.  The  Uotifera  may  be  rendered  apparently 
lifeless  by  desiccation,  and  will  yet  revive  if  wetted.     When 


302  SIMPLE  AND   COMPOUND   EVOLUTION. 

tlie  African  rivers  wMcli  it  inliabits  are  dried  up,  tlie  LejpidO" 
siren  remains  torpid  in  tlie  hardened  mud,  until  tlie  return 
of  tlie  rainy  season  brings  water.  Humboldt  states  tliat 
during  tbe  summer  drouglitj  tlie  alligators  of  tlie  Pampas 
lie  buried  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation  beneatb  tlie 
parcbed  surface,  and  struggle  up  out  of  tbe  earth  as  soon  as 
it  becomes  humid.  The  history  of  each  organism 

teaches  us  the  same  thing.  The  young  plant,  just  putting 
its  head  above  the  soil,  is  far  more  succulent  than  the  adult 
plant;  and  the  amount  of  transformation  going  on  in  it  is 
relatively  much  greater.  In  that  portion  of  an  egg  which 
displays  the  formative  processes  during  the  early  stages  of 
iiicubation,  the  changes  of  arrangement  are  more  rapid  than 
those  which  an  equal  portion  of  the  body  of  a  hatched  chick 
undergoes.  As  may  be  inferred  from  their  respective  powers 
to  acquire  habits  and  aptitudes,  the  structural  modifiability 
of  a  child  is  greater  than  that  of  an  adult  man;  and  the 
structural  modifiability  of  an  adult  man  is  greater  than  that 
of  an  old  man:  contrasts  which  are  accompanied  by  corre- 
sponding contrasts  in  the  densities  of  the  tissues;  since  the 
ratio  of  water  to  solid  matter  diminishes  with  advancing 
age.  And  then  we  have  this  relation  repeated  in 

the  contrasts  between  parts  of  the  same  organism.  In  a 
tree,  rapid  structural  changes  go  on  at  the  ends  of  shoots, 
where  the  ratio  of  water  to  solid  matter  is  very  great;  while 
the  changes  are  very  slow  in  the  dense  and  almost  dry  sub- 
stance of  the  trunk.  Similarly  in  animals,  we  have  the  con- 
trast between  the  high  rate  of  change  going  on  in  a  soft 
tissue  like  the  brain,  and  the  low  rate  of  change  going  on 
in  dry  non- vascular  tissues,  such  as  those  which  form  hairs, 
nails,  horns,  &c. 

Other  groups  of  facts  prove,  in  an  equally  unmistake- 
able  way,  that  the  quantity  of  secondary  re-distribution  in  an 
organism  varies,  cceteris  paribus j  according  to  the  contained 
quantity  of  the  motion  we  call  heat.  The  contrasts  between 
different  organisms,  and  different  states  of  the  same  organism. 


SIMPLE  AXD  COMPOUND   EVOLUTION.  803 

unite   in  bliowing  this.  Speaking  generally,  tlie 

amounts  of  structure  and  rates  of  structural  change,  arc 
smaller  throughout  the  vegetal  kingdom  than  throughout 
the  animal  kingdom;  and,  speaking  generally,  the  heat  of 
plants  is  less  than  the  heat  of  animals.  A  comparison  of  the 
several  divisions  of  the  animal  kingdom  with  one  another,  dis- 
closes among  them  parallel  relations.  Regarded  as  a  whole, 
vertebrate  animals  are  higher  in  temperature  than  inverte- 
brate ones;  and  they  are  as  a  whole  higher  in  organic  ac- 
tivity and  complexity.  Between  subdivisions  of  the  ver- 
tebrata  themselves,  like  differences  in  the  state  of  molecular 
vibration,  accompany  like  differences  in  the  degree  of  evo- 
lution. The  least  compounded  of  the  Vcrtchrata  are  the 
fishes;  and  in  most  cases,  the  heat  of  fishes  is  nearly  the  same 
as  that  of  the  water  in  which  they  swim :  only  some  of  them 
being  decidedly  warmer.  Though  we  habitually  speak  of 
reptiles  as  cold-blooded;  and  though  they  have  not  much 
more  power  than  fishes  of  maintaining  a  temperature  above 
that  of  their  medium;  yet  since  their  medium  (which  is,  in 
the  majority  of  cases,  the  air  of  warm  climates)  is  on  the 
average  warmer  than  the  medium  inhabited  by  fishes,  the 
temperature  of  the  class  of  reptiles  is  higher  than  that  of  the 
class  of  fishes;  and  we  see  in  them  a  correspondingly  higher 
complexity.  The  much  more  active  molecular  agitation  in 
mammals  and  birds,  is  associated  with  a  considerably  greater 
multiformity  of  structure  and  a  very  far  greater  vi- 
vacity. The  most  instructive  contrasts,  however, 
are  those  occun-ing  in  the  same  organic  aggregates  m 
different  temperatures.  Plants  exhibit  structural  changes 
that  vary  in  rate  as  the  temperature  varies.  Though  light 
is  the  agent  which  effects  those  molecular  changes  causing 
vegetal  growth,  yet  we  see  that  in  the  absence  of  heat,  such 
changes  are  not  effected:  in  winter  there  is  enough  light, 
but  the  heat  being  insufficient,  plant-life  is  suspended.  That 
this  is  the  sole  cause  of  the  suspension,  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  at  the  same  season,    plants  contained  in  hot-houscS; 


304  SIMPLE  AND  COMPOUND  EVOLUTION. 

where  they  receive  even  a  smaller  amount  of  liglit^  go  ou 
producing  leaves  and  flowers.  We  see,  too,  tlaat  tlieir 
seeds,  to  wMcli  liglit  is  not  simply  needless  but  detrimental, 
begin  to  germinate  only  wben  the  return  of  a  warm  season 
raises  tlie  rate  of  molecular  agitation.  In  like  manner  the 
ova  of  animals,  undergoing  those  changes  by  which  struc- 
ture is  produced  in  them,  must  be  kept  more  or  less  warm: 
in  the  absence  of  a  certain  amount  of  motion  among  their 
molecules,  the  re-arrangement  of  parts  does  not  go  on.  Hy- 
bernating  animals  also  supply  proof  that  loss  of  heat  carried 
far,  retards  extremely  the  processes  of  transformation.  In 
animals  which  do  not  hybernate,  as  in  man,  prolonged  ex- 
posure to  intense  cold  produces  an  irresistible  tendency  to 
sleep  (which  implies  a  lowered  rate  of  structural  and  func- 
tional changes) ;  and  if  the  abstraction  of  heat  continues, 
this  sleep  ends  in  death,  or  stoppage  of  these  changes. 

Here,  then,  is  an  accumulation  of  proofs,  general  and 
special.  Living  aggregates  are  distinguished  by  the  con- 
nected facts,  that  during  integration  they  undergo  very 
remarkable  secondary  changes  which  other  aggregates  do 
not  undergo  to  any  considerable  extent;  and  that  they 
contain  (bulks  being  supposed  equal)  immensely  greater 
quantities  of  motion,  locked  up  in  various  ways. 

§  105.  The  last  chapter  closed  with  the  remark  that 
while  Evolution  is  always  an  integration  of  Matter  and  dis- 
sipation of  Motion,  it  is  in  most  cases  much  more.  And 
this  chapter  opened  by  briefly  specifying  the  conditiona 
under  which  Evolution  is  integrative  only,  or  remains 
simple,  and  the  conditions  under  which  it  is  something 
further  than  integrative,  or  becomes*  compound.  In  illus- 
trating this  contrast  between  simple  and  compound  Evolu- 
tion, and  in  explaining  how  the  contrast  arises,  a  vaguo 
idea  of  Evolutien  in  general  has  been  conveyed.  Unavoid- 
ably, we  have  to  some  extent  forestalled  the  full  dlscusaioa 
of  Evolution  about  to  bo  commenced. 


SIMPLE  AND   COMPOUND  EVOLUTION.  805 

There  is  notMng  in  tMs  to  regret.  A  preliminary  con- 
ception^ indefinite  bnt  compreliensivej  is  always  useful  as  an 
introduction  to  a  complete  conception — cannot,  indeed,  bo 
dispensed  with.  A  complex  idea  is  not  communicable 
directly,  by  giving  one  after  another  its  component  parts 
in  their  finished  forms;  since  if  no  outline  pre-exists  in 
the  mind  of  the  recipient,  these  component  parts  will  not 
be  rightly  combined.  The  intended  combination  can  be 
made  only  when  the  recipient  has  discovered  for  himself 
how  the  components  are  to  be  arranged.  Much  labour  has 
to  be  gone  through  which  would  have  been  saved  had  a 
general  notion,  however  cloudy,  been  conveyed  before  the 
distinct  and  detailed  delineation  was  commenced. 

That  which  the  reader  has  incidentally  gathered  respect- 
ing the  nature  of  Evolution  from  the  foregoing  sections,  he 
may  thus  advantageously  use  as  a  rude  sketch,  enabling  him 
to  seize  the  relations  among  the  several  parts  of  the  enlarged 
picture  as  they  are  worked  out  before  him.  He  will  con- 
stantly bear  in  mind  that  the  total  history  of  every  sensible 
existence  is  included  in  its  Evolution  and  Dissolution; 
which  last  process  we  leave  for  the  present  out  of  considera- 
tion. He  will  remember  that  whatever  aspect  of  it  we  are 
for  the  moment  considering.  Evolution  is  always  to  be  re- 
garded as  fundamentally  an  integration  of  Matter  and  dis- 
sipation of  Motion,  which  may  be,  and  usually  is,  accom- 
panied incidentally  by  other  transformations  of  Matter  and 
Motion.  And  he  will  everywhere  expect  to  find  that  the 
primary  re-distribution  ends  in  forming  aggregates  which 
are  simple  where  it  is  rapid,  but  which  become  compound  in 
proportion  as  its  slowness  allows  the  efiects  of  secondary 
rc-distributions  to  accumulate. 

§  106.  There  is  much  difficulty  in  tracing  out  trans- 
formations so  vast,  so  varied,  and  so  intricate  as  those 
now  to  be  entered  upon.  Besides  having  to  deal  with 
concrete   phenomena  of  all  orders,  we  have  to  deal  with 


306  SIMPLE  AND  COMIOUND  EVOLUTION. 

each  group  of  phenomena  under  several  aspects,  no  one 
of  wliicli  can  be  fally  understood  apart  from  the  rest  and  no 
one  of  which  can  be  studied  simultaneously  with  the  rest. 
Already  we  have  seen  that  during  Evolution  two  great 
classes  of  changes  are  going  on  together ;  and  we  shall  pre- 
sently see  that  the  second  of  these  great  classes  is  re-divi- 
sible. Entangled  with  one  another  as  all  these  changes 
are,  explanation  of  any  one  class  or  order  involves  direct  or 
indirect  reference  to  others  not  yet  explained.  "We  have 
nothing  for  it  but  to  make  the  best  practicable  compromise. 

It  will  be  most  convenient  to  devote  the  next  chapter  to 
a  detailed  account  of  Evolution  under  its  primary  aspect ; 
tacitly  recognizing  its  secondary  aspects  only  so  far  as  the 
exposition  necessitates. 

The  succeeding  two  chapters,  occupied  exclusively  with 
the  secondary  re-distributions,  will  make  no  reference  to  the 
primary  re- distribution  beyond  that  which  is  unavoidable  : 
each  being  also  limited  to  one  particular  trait  of  the  se- 
condary re-distributions. 

In  a  further  chapter  will  be  treated  a  third,  and  still  more 
distinct,  character  of  the  secondary  re-distributions. 


•CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   LAW    OF    EVOLUTION. 

§  107.  Deduction  lias  now  to  be  verified  "by  induction. 
Thus  far  tlie  argument  lias  been  that  all  sensible  existences 
must,  in  some  way  or  other  and  at  some  time  or  other,  reach 
^  their  concrete  shapes  through  processes  of  concentration; 
and  such  facts  as  have  been  named  have  been  named  merely 
to  clarify  the  perception  of  this  necessity.  But  we  cannot 
be  said  to  have  arrived  at  that  unified  knowledge  consti- 
tuting Philosophy,  until  we  have  seen  how  existences  of  all 
orders  do  exhibit  a  progressive  integration  of  Matter  and 
concomitant  loss  of  Motion.  Tracing,  so  far  as  we  may  by 
observation  and  inference,  the  objects  dealt  with  by  the 
Astronomer  and  the  Geologist,  as  well  as  those  which  Bio- 
logy, Psychology  and  Sociology  treat  of,  we  have  to  con- 
sider what  direct  proof  there  is  that  the  Cosmos,  in  general 
and  in  detail,  conforms  to  this  law. 

In  doing  this,  manifestations  of  the  law  moro  involved 
than  those  hitherto  indicated,  will  chiefly  occupy  us. 
Throughout  the  classes  of  facts  successively  contemplated, 
our  attention  will  be  directed  not  so  much  to  the  truth  that 
every  aggregate  has  undergone,  or  is  undergoing,  inte- 
gration, as  to  the  further  truth  that  in  every  more  or  less 
separate  part  of  every  aggregate,  integration  has  been, 
or  is,  in  progress.  Instead  of  simple  wholes  and  wholes 
of   which    the    complexity    has    been    ignored,   we    have 


308  THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION. 

here  to  deal  witli  wlioles  as  they  actually  exist — mostly 
made  up  of  many  members  combined  in  many  ways.  And 
in  them  we  shall  have  to  trace  the  transformation  as  dis- 
played under  several  forms — a  passage  of  the  total  mass 
from  a  more  diffused  to  a  more  consolidated  state;  a  con- 
current similar  passage  in  every  portion  of  it  that  comes  to 
have  a  distinguishable  individuality;  and  a  simultaneous 
increase  of  combination  among  such  individuated  portions. 

§  108.  Our  Sidereal  System  by  its  general  form,  by  its 
clusters  of  stars  of  all  degrees  of  closeness,  and  by  its 
nebulae  in  all  stages  of  condensation,  gives  us  grounds  to 
suspect  that,  generally  and  locally,  concentration  is  going 
on.  Assume  that  its  matter  has  been,  and  still  is  being, 
drawn  together  by  gravitation,  and  we  have  an  explanation 
of  all  its  leading  traits  of  structure — from  its  solidified 
masses  up  to  its  collections  of  attenuated  flocculi  barely 
discernible  by  the  most  powerful  telescopes,  from  its  double 
stars  up  to  such  complex  aggregates  as  the  nubeculos. 
Without  dwelling  on  this  evidence,  however,  let  us  pass  to 
the  case  of  the  Solar  System. 

The  belief,  for  which  there  are  so  many  reasons,  that  this 
has  had  a  nebular  genesis,  is  the  belief  that  it  has  arisen  by 
the  integration  of  matter  and  concomitant  loss  of  motion. 
Evolution,  under  its  primary  aspect,  is  illustrated  most 
simply  and  clearly  by  this  passage  of  the  Solar  System  from 
a  widely  diffused  incoherent  state  to  a  consolidated  coherent 
state.  While,  according  to  the  nebular  hypothesis, 

there  has  been  going  on  this  gradual  concentration  of  the 
Solar  System  as  an  aggregate,  there  has  been  a  simulta- 
neous concentration  of  each  partially-independent  member. 
The  substance  of  every  planet  in  passing  through  its  stages 
of  nebulous  ring,  gaseous  spheroid,  liquid  spheroid,  and 
spheroid  externally  solidified,  has  in  essentials  paralleled  the 
changes  gone  through  by  the  general  mass;  and  every 
Batellite  has  done  the  like.  Moreover,  at  the  same 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION,  309 

time  that  the  matter  of  the  whole^  as  well  as  the  matter  of 
each  partially-independent  part,,  has  been  thus  integrating, 
there  has  been  the  further  integration  implied  by  increas- 
ing combination  among  the  parts.  The  satellites  of  each 
planet  are  linked  with  their  primary  into  a  balanced  cluster; 
while  the  planets  and  their' satellites  form  with  the  Sun^  a 
compound  group  of  which  the  members  are  more  strongly 
bound  up  with  one  another  than  were  the  far-spread  por- 
tions of  the  nebulous  medium  out  of  which  they  arose. 

Even  apart  from  the  nebular  hypothesis^  the  Solar  System 
furnishes  evidence  having  a  like  general  meaning.  Not  to 
make  much  of  the  meteoric  matter  perpetually  being  added 
to  the  mass  of  the  Earth,  and  probably  to  the  masses  of 
other  planets,  as  well  as,  in  larger  quantities,  to  the  mass  of 
the  Sun,  it  will  suffice  to  name  two  generally-admitted 
instances.  The  one  is  the  appreciable  retardation  of  comets 
by  the  ethereal  medium,  and  the  inferred  retardation  of 
planets — a  process  which,  in  time,  must  bring  comets,  and 
eventually  planets,  into  the  Sun.  The  other  is  the  Sun's 
still-continued  loss  of  motion  in  the  shape  of  radiated  heat ; 
accompanying  the  still-continued  integration  of  his  mass. 

§  109.  To  geologic  evolution  we  pass  without  break  from 
the  evolution  which,  for  convenience,  we  separate  as  astro- 
nomic. The  history  of  the  Earth,  as  traced  out-  from  the 
structure  of  its  crust,  carries  us  back  to  that  molten  state 
which  the  nebular  hypothesis  implies;  and,  as  before  pointed 
out  (§  69),  the  changes  classed  as  igneous  are  the  accom- 
paniments of  the  progressing  consolidation  of  the  Earth's 
substance  and  accompanying  loss  of  its  contained  motion. 
Both  the  general  and  the  local  effects  may  be  briefly  exem- 
plified. 

Leaving  behind  the  period  when  the  more  volatile 
elements  now  existing  as  solids  were  kept  by  the  high 
temperature  in  a  gaseous  form,  we  may  begin  with  the  fact 
that  until  the  Earth's  surface  had  cooled  down  below  212'^, 


310  THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION. 

tlie  vast  mass  of  water  at  present  covering  tliree-fiftlis  of  it, 
must  have  existed  as  vapour.  This  enormous  volume  of 
disintegrated  liquid  became  integrated  as  fast  as  the  dissi- 
pation of  the  Earth's  contained  motion  allowed ;  leaving,  at 
length,  a  comparatively  small  portion  unintegrated,  which 
would  be  far  smaller  but  for  the  unceasing  absorption  of 
molecular  motion  from  the  Sun.  In  the  formation 

of  the  Earth's  crust  we  have  a  similar  change  similarly 
caused.  The  passage  from  a  thin  solid  film,  everywhere 
fissured  and  moveable  on  the  subjacent  molten  matter,  to  a 
crust  so  thick  and  strong  as  to  be  but  now  and  then  very 
slightly  dislocated  by  disturbing  forces,  illustrates  the  pro- 
cess. And  while,  in  this  superficial  solidification,  wp  see 
under  one  form  how  concentration  accompanies  loss  of  con- 
tained motion,  we  see  it  under  another  form  in  that 
diminution  of  the  Earth's  bulk  implied  by  superficial 
corrugation. 

Local  or  secondary  integrations  have  advanced  along 
with  this  general  integration.  A  molten  spheroid  merely 
skinned  over  with  solid  matter,  could  have  presented  nothing 
beyond  small  patches  of  land  and  water.  Difierences  of 
elevation  great  enough  to  form  islands  of  considerable  size, 
imply  a  crust  of  some  rigidity ;  and  only  as  the  crust  grew 
thick  could  the  land  be  united  into  continents  divided  by 
oceans.  So,  too,  with  the  more  striking  elevations.  The 
collapse  of  a  thin  crust  round  its  cooling  and  contracting 
contents,  would  throw  it  into  low  ridges :  it  must  have 
acquired  a  relatively  great  depth  and  strength  before  ex- 
tensive mountain  systems  of  vast  elevation  became  pos- 
sible. In  sedimentary  changes,  also,  a  like  pro- 
gress is  inferable.  Denudation  acting  on  the  small  surfaces 
exposed  during  early  stages,  would  produce  but  small  local 
deposits.  The  collection  of  detritus  into  strata  of  great 
extent,  and  the  union  of  such  strata  into  extensive 
"  systems,"  imply  wide  surfaces  of  land  and  water,  as  well 
%s  subsidences  great,  in  both  area  and  depth;  whence  it 


THE  lAW  OF  EVOLUTION.  311 

4 

follows  tliat  integrations  of  this  order  must  liave  grown 
more  pronounced  as  tlie  Earth's  crust  thickened. 

§  110.  Already  we  havp  recognized  the  fact  that 
organic  evolution  is  primarily  the  formation  of  an  aggre- 
gate, by  the  continued  incorporation  of  matter  previously 
spread  through  a  wider  space.  Merely  reminding  the 
reader  that  every  plant  grows  by  concentrating  in  itself 
elements  that  were  before  diffused  as  gases,  and  that  every 
animal  grows  by  re-concentrating  these  elements  previously 
dispersed  in  surrounding  plants  and  animals;  it  will  bo 
here  proper  to  complete  the  conception  by  pointing  out  that 
the  early  history  of  a  plant  or  animal,  stiU  more  clearly  than 
its  later  history,  shows  us  this  fundamental  process.  For  tho 
microscopic  germ  of  each  organism  undergoes,  for  a  long 
time,  no  other  change  than  that  implied  by  absorption  of 
nutriment.  Cells  imbedded  in  the  stroma  of  an  ovarium, 
become  ova  by  little  else  than  continued  growth  at  the 
expense  of  adjacent  materials.  And  when,  after  fertilization, 
a  more  active  evolution  commences,  its  most  conspicuous 
trait  is  the  drawing-in,  to  a  germinal  centre,  of  the  substance 
which  the  ovum  contains. 

Here,  however,  our  attention  must  be  directed  maiuly  to 
the  secondary  integrations  which  habitually  accompany  the 
primary  integration.  We  have  to  observe  how,  along  with 
the  formation  of  a  larger  mass  of  matter,  there  goes  on  a 
drawing  together  and  consolidation  of  the  matter  into 
parts,  as  weU  as  an  increasingly-intimate  combination  of 
parts.  In  the  mammalian  embryo,  the  hearb,  at 

first  a  long  pulsating  blood-vessel,  by  and  by  twists  upon  itself 
and  integrates.  The  bile-cells  constituting  the  rudimentary 
liver,  do  not  simply  become  different  from  the  wall  of  tlie 
intestine  in  which  they  at  first  lie ;  but,  as  they  accumulate, 
they  simultaneously  diverge  from  it  and  consolidate  into  ar 
organ.-  The  anterior  segments  of  the  cercbro-spinal  axis, 
which  are  at  first  continuous  with  the  rest,  a.nd  distinguished 


812  THE   LAW  OP  EVOLUTION. 

only  by  their  larger  size,  undergo  a  gradual  union ;  and  at 
tlie  same  time  tlie  resulting  liead  folds  into  a  mass  clearly 
marked  off  from  tlie  rest  of  the  vertebral  column.  Tlie  liko 
process,  variously  exemplified  in  otber  organs,  is  meanwhile 
exhibited  by  the  body  as  a  whole ;  which  becomes  integrated 
somewhat  in  the  same  way  that  an  outspread  handkerchief 
and  its  contents  become  integrated  when  its  edges  are  drawn 
in  and  fastened  to  make  a  bundle.  Analogous 

changes  go  on  long  after  birth,  and  continue  even  up  to 
old  age.  In  man,  that  solidification  of  the  bony  frame- 
work which,  during  childhood,  is  seen  in  the  coales- 
cence of  portions  of  the  same  bone  ossified  from  diffe- 
rent centres,  is  afterwards  seen  in  the  coalescence  of  bones 
that  were  originally  distinct.  The  appendages  of  the 
vertebrce  unite  with  the  vertebral  centres  to  which  they  be- 
long— a  change  not  completed  until  towards  thirty.  At  the 
same  time  the  epiphyses,  formed  separately  from  the  main 
bodies  of  their  respective  bones,  have  their  cartilaginous 
connexions  turned  into  osseous  ones — are  fused  to  the  masses 
beneath  them.  The  component  vertebroo  of  the  sacrum, 
which  remain  separate  till  about  the  sixteenth  year,  then 
begin  to  unite ;  and  in  ten  or  a  dozen  years  more  their  union 
is  complete.  Still  later  occurs  the  coalescence  of  the  coccy- 
geal vertebras ;  and  there  are  some  other  bony  unions  which 
remain  unfinished  unless  advanced  age  is  reached.  To 
which  add  that  the  increase  of  density  and  toughness,  going 
on  throughout  the  tissues  in  general  during  life,  is  the  for- 
mation of  a  more  highly  integrated  substance. 

The  species  of  change  thus  illustrated  under  several 
aspects  in  the  unfolding  human  body,  may  be  traced  in  all 
animals.  That  mode  of  it  which  consists  in  the  union  of 
similar  parts  originally  separate,  has  been  described  by 
Milne-Edwards  and  others,  as  exhibited  in  various  of  the 
Invcrtehrata ;  though  it  d,oes  not  seem  to  have  been  in- 
cluded by  them  as  an  essential  peculiarity  in  the  process  of 
organic  development.     We  shall,  however,  see  clearly  that 


THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION.  313 

local  integration  is  an  all-important  part  of  tliis  process, 
wlien  we  find  it  displayed  not  only  in  tlie  successive  stages 
passed  througli  by  every  embryo,  but  also  in  ascending  from 
the  lower  creatures  to  tlie  higlier.  As  manifested  in  either 
way,  it  goes  on  both  longitudinally  and  transversely :  under 
which  different  forms  we  may,  indeed,  most  conveniently 
consider  it.  Of    longitudinal   integration^   the 

sub-kingdom  Annulosa  supplies  abundant  examples.  Its 
lower  members,  such  as  worms  and  myriapods,  are  mostly 
characterized  by  the  great  number  of  segments  composing 
them ;  reaching  in  some  cases  to  several  hundreds.  But  in 
the  higher  divisions — crustaceans,  insects,  and  spiders — we 
find  this  number  reduced  down  to  twenty-two,  thirteen,  or 
even  fewer ;  while,  accompanying  the  reduction,  there  is  a 
shortening  or  integration  of  the  whole  body,  reaching  its 
extreme  in  the  crab  and  the  spider.  The  significance  of 
these  contrasts,  as  bearing  on  the  general  doctrine  of 
Evolution,  will  be  seen  when  it  is  pointed  out  that  they  are 
parallel  to  those  which  arise  during  the  development  of 
individual  annulose  animals.  In  the  lobster,  the  head  and 
thorax  form  one  compact  box,  made  by  the  union  of  a  num- 
ber of  segments  which  in  the  embryo  were  separable.  Simi- 
larly, the  butterfly  shows  us  segments  so  much  more  closely 
united  than  they  were  in  the  caterpillar,  as  to  be,  some  of 
them,  no  longer  distinguishable  from  one  another.  The 
Vertcbrata  again,  throughout  their  successively  higher  classes, 
famish  Hke  instances  of  longitudinal  union.  In  most  fishes, 
and  in  reptiles  that  have  no  limbs,  none  of  the  vertebra) 
coalesce.  In  most  mammals  and  in  birds,  a  variable  num  - 
ber  of  vertebr83  become  fused  together  to  form  the  sacrum ; 
and  in  the  higher  apes  and  in  man,  the  caudal  vertebra) 
also  lose  their  separate  individualities  in  a  single  as 
coccygis.  That  which  we  may  distinguish  as  trans- 

verse integration,  is  well  illustrated  among  the  Annulosa  in 
the  development  of  the  nervous  system.     Leaving  out  those 
most  degraded  forms  which  do  not  present  distinct  ganglia, 
15 


314  THE   LAW  OP  EVOLUTION. 

it  is  to  "be  ol3served  tliat  tlie  lower  annulose  animals,  in  com- 
mon witli  tlie  larvae  of  tlie  higlier,  are  severally  cliaracterized 
by  a  double  cliain  of  ganglia  running  from  end  to  end  of 
tlie  body ;  while  in  the  more  perfectly-formed  annulose 
animals,  tMs  double  chain  becomes  united  into  a  siagle 
chain.  Mr.  Newport  has  described  the  course  of  this  con- 
centration as  exhibited  in  insects ;  and  by  Eathke  it  has  been 
traced  in  crustaceans.  During  the  early  stages  of  the 
Astacus  fluviatiliSf  or  common  cray-fish,  there  is  a  pair  of 
separate  ganglia  to  each  ring.  Of  the  fourteen  pairs  be- 
longing to  the  head  and  thorax,  the  three  pairs  in  advance 
of  the  mouth  consolidate  into  one  mass  to  form  the  brain,  or 
cephalic  ganglion.  Meanwhile,  out  of  the  remainder,  the 
first  six  pairs  severally  unite  in  the  median  liue,  while  the 
rest  remaia  more  or  less  separate.  Of  these  six  double 
ganglia  thus  formed,  the  anterior  four  coalesce  into  one 
mass;  the  remaining  two  coalesce  into  another  mass;  and  then 
these  two  masses  coalesce  into  one.  Here  we  see  longitudi- 
nal and  transverse  integration  going  on  simultaneously;  and 
in  the  highest  crustaceans  they  are  both  carried  still  fur- 
ther. The  Yertehrata  clearly  exhibit  transverse  integration 
in  the  development  of  the  generative  system.  The  lowest 
mammals — ^the  Monotrematw—^vcL  common  with  birds,  to  which 
they  are  in  many  respects  allied,  have  oviducts  which  to- 
wards their  lower  extremities  are  dilated  into  cavities,  sever- 
ally performing  in  an  imperfect  way  the  function  of  a  uterus. 
"  In  the  Marsiijpialia  there  is  a  closer  approximation  of  tho 
two  lateral  sets  of  organs  on  the  median  line ;  for  tho  ovi- 
ducts converge  towards  one  another  and  meet  (without 
coalescing)  on  the  median  line ;  so  that  their  uterine  dilata- 
tions are  in  contact  with  each  other,  forming  a  true  '  double 
uterus.'  ...  As  we  ascend  the  series  of  '  placental '  mam- 
mals, we  find  the  lateral  coalescence  becoming  more  and 
more  complete.  ...  In  many  of  the  liodcntia  the  uterus 
still  remains  completely  divided  into  two  lateral  halves; 
wliilst  in  others  these  coalesce  at  their  lower  portions,  form- 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION.  315 

ing  a  rudiment  of  the  true  'body'  of  the  uterus  in. the 
human  subject.  This  part  increases  at  the  expense  of  the 
lateral  '  cornua '  in  the  higher  herbivora  and  carnivora;  but 
even  in  the  lower  quadrumana  the  uterus  is  somewhat  cleffc 
at  its  summit ."''* 

Under  the  head  of  organic  integrations,,  there  remain  to 
be  noted  some  which  do  not  occur  within  the  limits  of  one 
organism^  and  which  only  in  an  indirect  way  involve  con- 
centration of  matter  and  dissipation  of  motion.  These  are 
the  integrations  by  which  organisms  are  made  dependent  on 
one  another.  "We  may  set  down  two  kinds  of  them — those 
which  occur  within  the  same  species,  and  those  which  occur 
among  different  species.  More  or  less  of  the  gre- 

garious tendency  is  general  in  animals;  and  when  it  is 
marked^  there  is^  in  addition  to  simple  aggregation,  a  certain 
degree  of  combination.  Creatures  that  hunt  in  packs,  or 
that  have  sentinels,  or  that  are  governed  by  leaders,  form 
bodies  partially  united  by  co-operation.  Among  polygamous 
mammals  and  birds  this  mutual  dependence  is  closer ;  and 
the  social  insects  show  us  assemblages  of  individuals  of  a 
still  more  consolidated  character:  some  of  them  having 
carried  the  consolidation  so  far  that  the  individuals  cannot 
exist  if  separated.  How  organisms  in  general  are 

mutually  dependent,  and  in  that  sense  integrated,  we  shall 
see  on  remembering — first,  that  while  all  animals  live 
directly  or  indirectly  on  plants,  plants  live  on  the  carbonic 
acid  excreted  by  animals  ;  second,  that  among  animals  the 
flesh-eaters  cannot  exist  without  the  plant-eaters ;  third, 
that  a  large  proportion  of  plants  can  continue  their  respec- 
tive races  only  by  the  help  of  insects,  and  that  in  many 
cases  particular  plants  need  particular  insects.  Without 
detailing  the  more  complex  connexions,  which  Mr.  Darwin 
has  so  beautifully  illustrated,  it  will  suffice  to  say  that  the 
Flora  and 'Fauna  in  each  habitat,  constitute  an  aggregate 

•  Carpenter's  Prin.  of  Comp.  Phya.,  p.  617. 


816  THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION. 

SO  far  integrated  tliat  many  of  its  species  die  ont  if  placed 
amid  tlie  plants  and  animals  of  another  habitat.  And  it 
is  to  be  remarked  tliat  this  integration^  too,  increases  as 
organic  evolution  progresses. 

§  111.  The  phenomena  set  down  in  the  foregoing  para- 
graph are  introductory  to  others  of  a  higher  order,  with 
which  they  ought,  perhaps,  in  strictness,  to  be  grouped — 
phenomena  which,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  we  may  term 
super-organic.  Inorganic  bodies  present  us  with  certain 
facts.  Certain  other  facts,  mostly  of  a  more  involved  kind, 
are  presented  by  organic  bodies.  There  remain  yet  further 
facts,  not  presented  by  any  organic  body  taken  singly ;  but 
which  result  from  the  actions  of  aggregated  organic  bodies 
on  one  another  and  on  inorganic  bodies.  Though  pheno- 
mena of  this  order  are,  as  we  see,  foreshadowed  among  in- 
ferior organisms,  they  become  so  extremely  conspicuous  in 
mankind  as  socially  united,  that  practically  we  may  consider 
them  to  commence  here. 

In  the  social  organism  integrative  changes  are  clearly  and 
abundantly  exemplified.  Uncivilized  societies  display  them 
when  wandering  families,  such  as  we  see  among  Bushnien^, 
join  into  tribes  of  considerable  numbers.  A  further  pro- 
gress of  like  nature  is  everywhere  manifested  in  tho  subju- 
gation of  weaker  tribes  by  stronger  ones ;  and  in  tho  sub- 
ordination of  their  respective  chiefs  to  the  conquering  chief. 
The  combinations  thus  resulting,  which,  among  aboriginal 
races,  are  being  continually  formed  and  continually  broken 
up,  become,  among  superior  races,  relatively  permanent.  If 
we  trace  the  stages  through  which  our  own  society,  or  any 
adjacent  one,  has  passed,  we  see  this  unification  from  timo 
to  time  repeated  on  a  larger  scale  and  gaining  in  stability. 
The  aggregation  of  juniors  and  the  children  of  juniors  under 
elders  and  tho  children  of  elders ;  the  consequent  establish- 
ment of  groups  of  vassals  bound  to  their  respective  nobles ; 
the  subsequent  subordination  of  groups  of  inferior  noblo?i 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION.  317 

to  dukes  or  earls ;  and  the  still  later  growth  of  the  kingly 
power  over  dukes  and  earls ;  are  so  many  instances  of  in  ■ 
creasing  consolidation.  This  process  through  which  petty 
tenures  are  aggregated  in  feuds,  feuds  into  provinces,  pro- 
vinces into  kingdoms,  and  finally  contiguous  kingdoms  into 
a  single  one,  slowly  completes  itself  by  destroying  the  ori- 
ginal lines  of  demarcation.  And  it  may  be  further  remarked 
of  the  European  nations  as  a  whole,  that  in  the  tendency  to 
form  alliances  more  or  less  lasting,  in  the  restraining  influ- 
ences exercised  by  the  several  governments  over  one  another, 
in  the  system,  now  becoming  customary,  of  settling  inter- 
national disputes  by  congresses,  as  well  as  in  the  breaking 
down  of  commercial  barriers  and  the  increasing  facilities  of 
communication,  we  may  trace  the  beginnings  of  a  European 
federation — a  still  larger  integration  than  any  now  esta- 
blished. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  these  external  unions  of  groups  with 
groups,  and  of  the  compound  groups  with  one  another,  that 
the  general  law  is  exemplified.  It  is  exemplified  also  in 
unions  that  take  place  iaternally,  as  the  groups  become 
more  highly  organized.  There  are  two  orders  of  these, 
which  may  be  broadly  distinguished  as  regulative  and 
operative.  A  civilized  society  is  made  unlike  a 

barbarous  one  by  the  establishment  of  regulative  classes — 
governmental,  administrative,  military,  ecclesiastical,  legal, 
&c.,  which,  while  they  have  their  several  special  bonds  of 
union,  constituting  them  sub-classes,  are  also  held  together 
as  a  general  class  by  a  certain  community  of  privileges, 
of  blood,  of  education,  of  intercourse.  In  some  societies, 
fully  developed  after  their  particular  types,  this  con- 
solidation into  castes,  and  this  union  among  the  upper 
castes  by  separation  from  the  lower,  eventually  grow 
very  decided:  to  be  afterwards  rendered  less  decided, 
only  in  cases  of  social  metamorphosis  caused  by  the  in- 
dustrial regime.  The  integrations  that  accompany 
the   operative   or   industrial   organization,   later  in   origin. 


318  THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION. 

are  not  merely  of  tliis  indirect  kind^  but  they  are  also  direct 
— they  show  us  physical  approach.  "We  have  integrations 
consequent  on  the  simple  growth  of  adjacent  parts  perform- 
ing like  functions ;  as^  for  instance,  the  junction  of  Man- 
chester with  its  cahco-weaving  suburbs.  We  have  other 
integrations  that  arise  when,  out  of  several  places  producing 
a  particular  commodity,  one  monopolizing  more  and  more  of 
the  business,  draws  to  it  masters  and  workers,  and  leaves 
the  other  places  to  dwindle ;  as  witness  the  growth  of  the 
Yorkshire  cloth-districts  at  the  expense  of  those  in  the  West 
of  England ;  or  the  absorption  by  Staffordshire  of  the  pot- 
tery-manufacture, and  the  consequent  decay  of  the  esta- 
blishments that  once  flourished  at  Derby  and  elsewhere. 
We  have  those  more  special  integrations  that  arise  within 
the  same  city ;  whence  result  the  concentration  of  publishers 
in  Paternoster  Bow,  of  corn-merchants  about  Mark  Lane,  of . 
civil  engineers  in  Great  George  Street,  of  bankers  in  the  centre 
of  the  city.  Industrial  combinations  that  consist,  not  in  the 
approximation  or  fusion  of  parts,  but  in  the  establishment 
of  common  centres  of  connexion,  are  exhibited  in  the  Bank 
clearing-house  and  the  Eailway  clearing-house.  While  of 
yet  another  species  are  those  unions  which  bring  into  rela- 
tion, the  more  or  less  dispersed  citizens  who  are  occupied  in 
like  ways ;  as  traders  are  brought  by  the  Exchange,  and  as 
are  professional  men  by  institutes  like  those  of  Civil  Engi- 
neers, Architects,  &c. 

At  first  sight  these  seem  to  be  the  last  of  our  instances. 
Having  followed  up  the  general  law  to  social  aggregates, 
there  apparently  remain  no  other  aggregates  to  which  it  can 
apply.  Thig  however  is  not  true.  Among  what  we  have 
above  distinguished  as  super-organic  phenomena,  we  shall 
find  sundry  groups  of  very  remg-rkable  and  interesting 
illustrations.  Though  evolution  of  the  various  products  of 
human  activities  cannot  be  said  directly  to  exemplify  the 
integration  of  matter  and  dissipation  of  motion,  yet  they 
exemplify  it  indirectly.    For  the  progress  of  Language,  of 


THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION.  319 

Science^  and  of  tlie  Arts,  industrial  and  sestlietic,  is  an  ob- 
jectiye  register  of  subjective  cbanges.  Alterations  of  struc- 
ture  in  buman  beings,  and  concomitant  alterations  of  struc- 
ture in  aggregates  of  buman  beings,  jointly  produce  corre- 
sponding alterations  of  structure  in  all  those  tbings  wbicb 
humanity  creates.  As  in  the  changed  impress  on  the  wax, 
we  read  a  change  in  the  seal ;  so  in  the  integrations  of  ad- 
vancing Language,  Science,  and  Art,  we  see  reflected  cer- 
tain integrations  of  advancing  human  structure,  individual 
and  social.     A  section  must  be  devoted  to  each  group. 

§  112.  Among  uncivilized  races,  the  many-syllabled  names 
used  for  not  uncommon  objects,  as  well  as  the  descriptive 
character  of  proper  names,  show  us  that  the  words  used 
for  the  less-familiar  things  are  formed  by  compounding 
the  words  used  for  the  more-familiar  things.  This  process 
of  composition  is  sometimes  found  in  its  incipient  stage — a 
stage  in  which  the  component  words  are  temporarily  united 
to  signify  some  un-named  object,  and,  from  lack  of  frequent 
use,  do  not  permanently  cohere.  But  in  the  majority  of 
inferior  languages,  the  process  of  '^  agglutination,'*  as  it 
is  called,  has  gone  far  enough  to  produce  considerable 
stability  in  the  compound  words :  there  is  a  manifest  inte- 
gration. How  small  is  the  degree  of  this  integration,  how- 
ever, when  compared  with  that  reached  in  weU-devcloped 
languages,  is  shown  both  by  the  great  length  of  the  compound 
words  used  for  things  and  acts  of  constant  occurrence,  and 
by  the  separableness  of  their  elements.  Certain  North- 
American  tongues  illustrate  this  very  well.  In  a  Ricaree 
vocabulary  extendrag  to  fifty  names  of  common  objects, 
which  in  English  are  nearly  all  expressed  by  single  syllables, 
there  is  not  one  monosyllabic  word ;  and  in  the  nearly-allied 
vocabulary  of  the  Pawnees,  the  names  for  these  same  com- 
mon objects  are  monosyllabic  in  but  two  instances.  Things 
so  familiar  to  these  hunting  tribes  as  dog  and  hoWy  are,  in 
the  Pawnee  language,  ashakish  and  teeragish  ;  the  hand  and 


320  THE  LAW   OF   EVOLUTION. 

tlie  eyes  aro  respectively  iJcshceree  and  Jceereelwo  ;  for  day  tlio 
term  is  sliaJcoorooeesliairet,  and  for  devil  it  is  tsaJieehshJcaJcoo' 
raiwah ;  wMle  tlie  numerals  are  composed  of  from  two  syl- 
lables up  to  five^  and  in  Eicaree  up  to  seven.  That 
the  great  length  of  these  familiar  words  implies  a  low  degree 
of  development^  and  that  in  the  formation  of  higher  lan- 
guages out  of  lower  there  is  a  progressive  integration^  which 
reduces  the  polysyllables  to  dissyllables  and  monosyllables, 
is  an  inference  confirmed  by  the  history  of  our  o^vn  language. 
Anglo-Saxon  steorra  has  been  in  course  of  time  consolidated 
into  English  star,  mona  into  moon,  and  nama  into  name. 
The  transition  through  the  intermediate  semi- Saxon  is  clearly 
traceable.  Sunn  became  in  semi-Saxon  sune,  and  in  Eng- 
lish son :  the  final  e  of  sune  being  an  evanescent  form  of  tho 
original  w.  The  change  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  plural,,  formed 
by  the  distinct  syllable  as,  to  our  plural  formed  by  the  appended 
consonant  s,  shows  us  the  same  thing :  smitlias  in  becom- 
ing smiths,  and  endas  in  becoming  ends,  illustrate  pro- 
gressive coalescence.  So,  too,  does  the  disappearance  of  the 
terminal  an  in  the  infinitive  mood  of  verbs ;  as  s£own  in  the 
transition  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  cuman  to  the  semi-Saxon 
cumme,  and  to  the  English  come.  Moreover  the  process  has 
"been  slowly  going  on,  even  since  what  we  distinguish  as  Eng- 
lish was  formed.  In  Elizabeth's  time,  verbs  were  still  very 
frequently  pluralized  by  the  addition  of  en — we  tell  was  wo 
tellen;  and  in  some  rural  districts  this  form  of  speech  may 
even  now  be  heard.  In  like  manner  the  terminal  ed  of  tho 
past  tense,  has  united  with  the  word  it  modifies.  Burn-ed 
has  in  pronunciation  become  burnt;  and  even  in  writing  tho 
terminal  t  has  in  some  cases  taken  the  place  of  the  ed.  Only 
where  antique  forms  in  general  are  adhered  to,  as  in  tho 
church-service,  is  the  distinctness  of  this  inflection  still 
maintained.  Further,  wo  see  that  the  compound  vowels  have 
been  in  many  cases  fused  into  single  vowels.  That  in  bread 
the  e  and  a  were  originally  both  sounded,  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  they  are  still  so  sounded  in  parts  where  old  habits 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION.  821 

linger.  We,  however,  liave  contracted  tlie  pronunciation 
into  hred;  and  we  have  made  like  changes  in  many  other 
common  words.  Lastly,  let  it  be  noted  that  where  the  fre- 
quency of  repetition  is  greatest,  the  process  is  carried 
farthest;  as  instance  the  contraction  of  lord  (originally 
la  ford)  into  lud  in  the  mouths  of  Barristers;  and,  still  better, 
the  coalescence  of  God  he  with  you  into  Good  hye. 

Besides  exhibiting  in  this  way  the  integrative  process. 
Language  equally  exhibits  it  throughout  all  grammatical 
development.  The  lowest  kinds  of  human  speech,  having 
merely  nouns  and  verbs  without  inflections  to  them,  mani- 
festly permit  no  such  close  union  of  the  elements  of  a  pro- 
position as  results  when  the  relations  are  marked  either  by 
inflections  or  by  connective  words.  Such  speech  is  neces- 
sarily what  we  significantly  call  ^^  incoherent  .■''  To  a -con- 
siderable extent,  incoherence  is  seen  in  the  Chinese  language. 
"  If,  instead  of  saying  I  go  to  London,  figs  come  from  Turlcey, 
the  sun  shines  through  the  air,  we  said,  I  go  end  London, 
figs  come  origin  Turlcey,  the  sun  shines  passage  air,  we  should 
discourse  after  the  manner  of  the  Chinese.''  From  this 
^^aptoticf'  form,  there  is  clear  evidence  of  a  transition,  by 
coalescence,  to  a  form  in  which  the  connexions  of  words  are 
expressed  by  the  addition  to  them  of  certain  inflectional  words. 
^^In  Languages  like  the  Chinese,''  remarks  Dr.  Latham,  ^'the 
separate  words  most  in  use  to  express  relation  may  become 
adjuncts  or  annexes."  To  this  he  adds  the  fact  that  '^  the 
numerous  inflexional  languages  fall  into  two  classes.  Li  one, 
the  inflexions  have  no  appearance  of  having  been  separate 
words.  In  the  other,  their  origin  as  separate  words  is  de- 
monstrable." From  which  the  inference  drawn  is,  that  the 
*^  aptotic  "  languages,  by  the  more  and  more  constant  use 
of  adjuncts,  gave  rise  to  the  ''  agglntinatej'  languages,  or 
those  in  which  the  original  separateness  of  the  inflexional 
parts  can  be  traced ;  and  that  out  of  these,  by  further  use, 
arose  the  *'  amalgamate "  languages,  or  those  in  which  tho 
original  separateness  of  the  inflexional  parts  can  uo  longer 


322 


THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION. 


be  traced.  Strongly  corroborative  of  this  inference 

is  tlie  unquestionable  fact_,  that  by  sucli  a  process  there  have 
grown  out  of  the  amalgamate  languages,  the  "  anaptotic " 
languages ;  of  which  our  own  is  the  most  perfect  example 
—languages  in  which,  by  further  consolidation,  inflexions 
have  almost  disappeared,  while,  to  express  the  verbal  rela- 
tions, certain  new  kinds  of  words  have  been  developed. 
When  we  see  the  Anglo-Saxon  inflexions  gradually  lost  by 
contraction  during  the  development  of  English,  and,  though 
to  a  less  degree,  the  Latin  inflexions  dwindling  away  during 
the  development  of  French,  we  cannot  deny  that  grammati- 
cal structure  is  modified  by  integration ;  and  seeing  how 
clearly  the  earlier  stages  of  grammatical  structure  are  ex- 
plained by  it,  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  it  has  been  going 
on  from  the  first. 

In  proportion  to  the  degree  of  this  integration,  is  the 
extent  to  which  integration  of  another  order  is  carried. 
Aptotic  languages  are,  as  already  pointed  out,  necessarily 
incoherent — the  elements  of  a  proposition  cannot  be  com- 
pletely tied  into  a  whole.  But  as  fast  as  coalescence  pro- 
duces inflected  words,  it  becomes  possible  to  unite  them 
into  sentences  of  which  the  parts  are  so  mutually  dependent 
that  no  considerable  change  can  be  made  without  destroying 
the  meaning.  Yet  a  further  stage  in  this  process  may  be 
noted.  After  the  development  of  those  grammatical  forms 
which  make  definite  statements  possible,  we  do  not  at  first 
find  them  used  to  express  anything  beyond  statements  of  a 
simple  kind.  A  single  subject  with  a  single  predicate,  ac- 
companied by  but  few  qualifying  terms,  are  usually  all.  If 
we  compare,  for  instance,  the  Hebrew  scriptures  with  writ- 
ings of  modern  times,  a  marked  difierence  of  aggregation 
among  the  groups  of  words,  is  visible.  In  the  number  of 
subordinate  propositions  which  accompany  the  principal 
one ;  in  the  various  complements  to  subjects  and  predicates ; 
and  in  the  numerous  qualifying  clauses — all  of  them  united 
into  one  complex  whole — ^many  sentences  in  modern  com- 


THE   LAW  OF   EVOLUTION.  323 

positions  exhibit  a  degree  of  integration  not  to  be  found  in 
ancient  ones.     . 

§  113.  The  history  of  Science  presents  facts  of  the  same 
meaning  at  every  step.  Indeed  the  integration  of  groups 
of  like  entities  and  like  relations,  may  be  said  to  constitute 
the  most  conspicuous  part  of  scientific  progress.  A  glance 
at  the  classificatory  sciences,  shows  us  that  the  confused 
incoherent  aggregations  which  the  vulgar  makei  of  natural 
objects,  are  gradually  rendered  complete  and  compact,  and 
bound  up  into  groups  within  groups.  While,  instead  of 
considering  all  marine  creatures  as  fish,  shell-fish,  and  jelly- 
fish. Zoology  establishes  divisions  and  sub-divisions  under 
the  heads  Vertehrata,  Annulosa,  Mollusca,  &c. ;  and  while, 
in  place  of  the  wide  and  vague  assemblage  popularly  de- 
scribed as  ^'  creeping  things,"  it  makes  the  specific  classes 
Annelida,  Myriojpoda,  Inseday  Arachnida;  it  simultaneously 
gives  to  these  an  increasing  consolidation.  The  several 
orders  and  genera  of  which  each  consists,  are  arranged  ac- 
cording to  their  affinities  and  tied  together  under  common 
definitions ;  at  the  same  time  that,  by  extended  observation 
and  rigorous  criticism,  the  previously  unknown  and  un- 
determined forms  are  integrated  with  their  respective  con- 
geners. Nor  is  the  process  less  clearly  manifested 
in  those  sciences  which  have  for  their  subject-matter,  not 
classified  objects  but  classified  relations.  Under  one  of  ita 
chief  aspects,  scientific  advance  is  the  advance  of  generaliza- 
tion ;  and  generalizing  is  uniting  into  groups  all  like  co- 
existencies  and  sequences  among  phenomena. .  The  colliga- 
tion of  many  concrete  relations  into  a  generalization  of 
the  lowest  order,  exemplifies  this  principle  in  its  simplest 
form ;  and  it  is  again  exempUfied  in  a  more  complex  form 
by  the  colligation  of  these  lowest  generalizations  into  higher 
ones,  and  these  into  still  higher  ones.  Year  by  year  are 
estabUshed  certain  connexions  among  orders  of  phenomena 
that  appear  unaUied ;  and  these  connexions,  multiplying  and 


J324  THE   LAW  OP   EVOLUTION. 

Btrengtiiening,  gradually  bring  the  seemingly  unallicd 
orders  under  a  common  bond.  Wlxeuj,  for  example, 
Humboldt  quotes  tbe  saying  of  tlie  Swiss — "  it  is  going  to 
rain  because  we  hear  the  murmur  of  the  torrents  nearer,^' — 
when  he  remarks  the  relation  between  this  and  an  observa- 
tion of  his  own,  that  the  cataracts  of  the  Orinoco  are  heard 
at  a  greater  distance  by  night  than  by  day — when  he  notes 
the  essential  parallelism  existing  between  these  facts  and 
the  fact  that  the  unusual  visibility  of  remote  objects 
is  also  an  indication  of  coming  rain — and  when  ho 
points  out  that  the  common  cause  of  these  variations  is  the 
smaller  hindrance  offered  to  the  passage  of  both  light  and 
sound,  by  media  which  are  comparatively  homogeneous, 
either  in  temperature  or  hygrometric  state;  he  helps  in 
bringing  under  one  generalization  the  phenomena  of  light 
and  those  of  sound.  Experiment  having  shown  that  these 
conform  to  like  laws  of  reflection  and  refraction,  the  conclu- 
sion that  they  are  both  produced  by  undulations  gains  pro- 
bability: there  is  an  incipient  integration  of  two  great  orders 
of  phenomena,  between  which  no  connexion  was  suspected  in 
times  past.  A  still  more  decided  integration  has  been  of  late 
taking  place  between  the  once  independent  sub-sciences  of 
Electricity,  Magnetism,  and  Light. 

The  process  will  manifestly  be  carried  much  further.  Such 
propositions  as  those  set  forth  in  preceding  chapters,  on 
"The  Persistence  of  Force,'^  "The  Transformation  and 
Equivalence  of  Forces,"  "  The  Direction  of  Motion,"  and 
"  The  Ehythm  of  Motion,"  unite  within  single  bonds  phe- 
nomena belonging  to  all  orders  of  existences.  And  if  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  that  which  wo  here  understand  by 
Philosophy,  there  must  eventually  be  reached  a  universal 
integration. 

§  114.  Nor  do  the  industrial  and  sesthetic  Arts  fail  to 
Bupply  us  with  equally  conclusive  evidence.  The  progress 
from  rude,  small,  and  simple  tools,  to  perfect,  complex,  and 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION.  325 

large  macliineSj  is  a  progress  in  integration.  Among  wliat 
are  classed  as  tlie  meclianical  powers,  the  advance  from  tlie 
lever  to  tlie  wheel-and-axle  is  an  advance  from  a  simple 
agent  to  an  agent  made  up  of  several  simple  ones.  On  com- 
paring tlie  wheel-and-axle,  or  any  of  tlie  macLines  used  in 
early  times  with  those  used  now,  we  see  that  in  each  of  our 
machines  several  of  the  primitive  machines  are  united  into 
one.  A  modern  apparatus  for  spinning  or  weaving,  for 
making  stockings  or  lace,  contaius  not  simply  a  lever,  an  in- 
clined plane,  a  screw,  a  wheel-and-axle,  joined  together ;  but 
several  of  each  integrated  into  one  whole.  Again,  in  early 
ages,  when  horse-power  and  man-power  were  alone  em- 
ployed, the  motive  agent  was  not  bound  up  with  the  tool 
moved ;  but  the  two  have  now  become  in  many  cases  fused 
together.  The  fire-box  and  boiler  of  a  locomotive  are  com- 
bined with  the  machinery  which  the  steam  works.  A  still 
more  extensive  integration  is  exhibited  in  every  factory. 
Here  we  find  a  large  number  of  complicated  machines, 
all  connected  by  driving  shafts  with  the  same  steam-engine 
— all  united  with  it  into  one  vast  apparatus. 

Contrast  the  mural  decorations  of  the  Egyptians  and 
Assyrians  with  modern  historical,  paintings,  and  there 
becomes  manifest  a  great  advance  in  unity  of  composition — 
in  the  subordination  of  the  parts  to  the  whole.  One  of 
these  ancient  frescoes  is,  in  truth,  made  up  of  a  number  of 
pictures  that  have  little  mutual  dependence.  The  several 
figures  of  which  each  group  consists,  show  very  imperfectly 
by  their  attitudes,  and  not  at  all  by  their  expressions,  the 
relations  in  which  they  stand  to  each  other:  the  respective 
groups  might  -be  separated  with  but  little  loss  of  meaning ; 
and  the  centre  of  chief  interest,  which  should  link  all  parts 
together,  is  often  inconspicuous.  The  same  trait  may  be 
noted  in  the  tapestries  of  medieval  days.  Kepresenting 
perhaps  a  hunting  scene,  one  of  these  contains  men,  horses, 
dogs,  beasts,  birds,  trees,  and  flowers,  miscellaneously  dis- 
persed:  the  living  objects  being  variously  occupied,  and 


S2G  THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION. 

mostly  with  no  apparent  consciousness  of  eacli  other's  proxi- 
mity. But  in  tlie  paintings  since  produced,  faulty  as  many 
of  tliem  are  in  this  respect,  there  is  always  a  more  or  less 
distinct  co-ordination  of  parts — an  arrangement  of  atti- 
tudes, expressions,  lights,  and  colours,  such  as  to  combine 
the  picture  into  an  organic  whole;  and  the  success  with 
wbich  unity  of  effect  is  educed  from  variety  of  components, 
is  a  chief. test  of  merit. 

In  music,  progressive  integration  is  displayed  in  still 
more  numerous  ways.  The  simple  cadence  embracing  but 
a  few  notes,  which  in  the  chants  of  savages  is  monotonously 
repeated,  becomes,  among  civilized  races,  a  long  series  of 
different  musical  phrases  combined  into  one  whole ;  and  so 
complete  is  the  integration,  that  the  melody  cannot  be 
broken  off  in  the  middle,  nor  shorn  of  its  final  note,  without 
giving  us  a  painful  sense  of  incompleteness.  When  to  the 
air,  a  bass,  a  tenor,  and  an  alto  are  added ;  and  when  to  the 
harmony  of  different  voice-parts  there  is  added  an  accom- 
paniment; we  see  exemplified  integrations  of  another  order, 
which  grow  gradually  more  elaborate.  And  the  process  is 
carried  a  stage  higher  when  these  complex  solos,  concerted 
pieces,  choruses,  and  orchestral  effects,  are  combined  into 
the  vast  ensemble  of  a  musical  drama ;  of  which,  be  it  re- 
membered, the  artistic  perfection  largely  consists  in  the 
subordination  of  the  particular  effects  to  the  total  effect. 

Once  more  the  Arts  of  literary  delineation,  narrative  and 
dramatic,  furnish  us  with  parallel  illustrations.  The  tales 
of  primitive  times,  like  those  with  which  the  story-tellers  of 
the  East  still  daily  amuse  their  listeners,  are  made  up  of 
successive  occurrences  that  are  not  only  in  themselves  un- 
natural, but  have  no  natural  connexion:  they  are  but  sc 
many  separate  adventures  put  together  without  necessary 
sequence.  But  in  a  good  modern  work  of  imagination,  tho 
events  are  the  proper  products  of  the  characters  working 
under  given  conditions ;  and  cannot  at  will  be  changed  in 
their   order   or  kind,  without  injuring   or   destroying  the 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION.  327 

general  eflfect.  Further,  the  characters  themselves,  which 
in  early  fictions  play  their  respective  parts  without  show- 
ing how  their  minds  are  modified  by  one  another  or  by 
the  events,  are  now  presented  to  us  as  held  together  by 
complex  moral  relations,  and  as  acting  and  re-acting  upon 
one  another's  natures. 

§  115.  Evolution  then,  under  its  primary  aspect,  is  a 
change  from  a  less  coherent  form  to  a  more  coherent 
form,  consequent  on  the  dissipation  of  motion  and  integra- 
tion of  matter.  This  is  the  universal  process  through  which 
sensible  existences,  individually  and  as  a  whole,  pass  during 
the  ascending  halves  of  their  histories.  This  prcJves  to  be 
a  character  displayed  equally  in  those  earliest  changes  which 
the  Universe  at  large  is  supposed  to  have  undergone,  and  in 
those  latest  changes  which  we  trace  in  society  and  the  pro- 
ducts of  social  life.  And  throughout,  the  unification  pro- 
ceeds in  several  ways  simultaneously. 

Alike  during  the  evolution  of  the  Solar  System,  of  a 
planet,  of  an  organism,  of  a  nation,  there  is  progressive 
aggregation  of  the  entire  mass.  This  may  be  shown  by  the 
increasing  density  of  the  matter  already  contained  in  it ;  or 
by  the  drawing  into  it  of  matter  that  was  before  separate ; 
or  by  both.  But  in  any  case  it  implies  a  loss  of  relative  mo- 
tion. At  the  same  time,  the  parts  into  which  the  mass 
has  divided,  severally  consolidate  in  Hke  manner.  We  see 
this  in  that  formation  of  planets  and  satellites  which  has 
gone  on  along  with  the  concentration  of  the  nebula  out  of 
which  the  Solar  System  originated ;  we  see  it  in  the  growth 
of  separate  organs  that  advances,  jpari  passu,  wdth  the 
growth  of  each  organism ;  we  see  it  in  that  rise  of 
special  industrial  centres  and  special  masses  of  popu- 
lation, w^hich  is  associated  with  the  rise  of  each  society. 
Always  more  or  less  of  local  integration  accompanies 
the  general  integration.  And  then,  beyond  the 
increased   closeness   of  juxta-position   among   the   compo- 


328  THE   LAW  OB   EVOLUTION, 

nents  of  the  whole,  and  among  the  components  of  each  part, 
there  is  increased  closeness  of  combination  among  the 
parts,  producing  mutual  dependence  of  them.  Dimly  fore- 
shadowed as  this  mutual  dependence  is  in  inorganic  exist- 
ences, both  celestial  and  terrestrial,  it  becomes  distinct  in 
organic  and  super-organic  existences.  From  the  lowest 
living  forms  upwards,  the  degree  of  development  is  marked 
by  the  degree  in  which  the  several  parts  constitute  a  co- 
operative assemblage.  The  advance  from  those  creatures 
wliich  live  on  in  each  part  when  cut  to  pieces,  up  to  those 
creatures  which  cannot  lose  any  considerable  part  without 
death,  nor  any  inconsiderable  part  without  great  constitu- 
tional disturbance,  is  an  advance  to  creatures  which,  while 
more  integrated  in  respect  to  their  solidification,  are  also 
more  integrated  as  consisting  of  organs  that  live  for  and  by 
each  other.  The  like  contrast  between  undeveloped  and  de- 
veloped societies,  need  not  be  shown  in  detail :  the  ever-in- 
creasing co-ordination  of  parts,  is  conspicuous  to  all.  And 
it  must  suflB.ce  just  to  indicate  that  the  same  thing  holds  true 
of  social  products  :  as,  for  instance,  of  Science ;  wliich  has 
become  highly  integrated  not  only  in  the  sense  that  each 
division  is  made  up  of  mutually-dependent  propositions,  but 
in  the  sense  that  the  several  divisions  are  mutually  de- 
pendent— cannot  carry  on  their  respective  investigations 
without  aid  from  one  another. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED, 

§  IIG.  Changes  great  in  their  amounts  and  various  m 
tKeir  kinds^  wliicli  accompany  those  dealt  with  in  the  last 
chapter,  have  thus  far  been  wholly  ignored — or,  if  tacitly 
recognized,,  have  not  been  avowedly  recognized.  Integration 
of  each  whole  has  been  described  as  taking  place  simul- 
taneously with  integration  of  each  of  the  parts  into  which  the 
whole  divides  itself.  But  how  comes  each  whole  to  divide  itself 
into  parts  ?  This  is  a  transformation  more  remarkable  thdn 
the  passage  of  the  whole  frgm  an  incoherent  to  a  coherent 
state;  and  a  formula  which  says  nothing  about  it  omits  more 
than  half  the  phenomena  to  be  formulated. 

This  larger  half  of  the  phenomena  we  have  now  to  treat. 
In  this  chapter  we  are  concerned  with  those  secondary  re- 
distributions of  matter  and  motion  that  go  on  along  with 
the  primary  re-distribution.  Wo  saw  that  wlule  in  very 
incoherent  aggregates,  secondary  re-distributions  produce 
but  evanescent  results,  in  aggregates  that  reach  and  main- 
tain a  certain  medium  state,  neither  very  incoherent  nor 
very  coherent,  results  of  a  relatively  persistent  character  are 
produced — structural  modifications.  And  our  next  inquiry 
must  be — What  is  the  universal  expression  for  these  struc- 
tural modifications  ? 

Already  an  implied  answer  has  been  given  by  the  title- 
Compound  Evolution.  Already  in  distinguishing  as  simple 
Evolution,  that  integration  of  matter  and  dissipation  of  mo- 


S30  THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

tion  wliicli  is  unaccompaiiied  by  secondary  re-distributions, 
it  lias  been  tacitly  asserted  that  where  secondary  re-distri- 
butions occur,,  complexity  arises.  Obviously  if,  while  there 
has  gone  on  a  transformation  of  the  incoherent  into  the  co- 
herent^ there  have  gone  on  other  transformations^  the  mass, 
instead  of  remaining  uniform,  must  have  become  multiform. 
The  proposition  is  an  identical  one.  To  say  that  the 
primary  re-distribution  is  accompanied  by  secondary  re-dis- 
tributions, is  to  say  that  along  with  the  change  from  a 
diffused  to  a  concentrated  state,  there  goes  on  a  change  from 
a  homogeneous  state  to  a  heterogeneous  state.  The  com- 
ponents of  the  mass  while  they  become  integrated  also 
become  differentiated.* 

This,  then,  is  the  second  aspect  under  which  we  have  to 
study  Evolution.  As,  in  the  last  chapter,  we  contemplated 
existences  of  all  orders  as  displaying  progressive  integration; 
so,  in  this  chapter,  we  have  to  contemplate  them  as  display- 
ing progressive  differentiation. 

§  117.  A  growing  variety  of  structure  throughout  our 
Sidereal  System,  is  implied  by  the  contrasts  that  indicate  an 
aggregative  process  throughout  it.  We  have  nebulae  that 
are  diffused  and  irregular,  and  others  that  are  spiral, 
annular,  spherical,  &c.  We  have  groups  of  stars  the  mem- 
bers of  which  are  scattered,  and  groups  concentrated  in  all 
degrees  down  to  closely-packed  globular  clusters.  We  have 
these  groups  differing  in  the  numbers  of  their  members, 
from  those  containing  several  thousand  stars  to  those  con- 

*  The  terms  here  used  must  be  understood  in  relative  senses.  Since 
we  know  of  no  such  thing  as  absoute  diffusion  or  absolute  concentration, 
the  change  can  never  be  anything  but  a  change  from  a  more  diffused 
to  a  less  diffused  state— from  smaller  coherence  to  greater  cohereuec ; 
and,  similarly,  as  no  concrete  existences  present  us  with  absolute 
Bimplicity  —  as  nothing  is  perfectly  uniform  —  as  we  nowhere  ilud 
complete  homogeneity — the  transformation  is  literally  always  towards 
greater  complexity,  or  increased  multiformity,  or  further  heterogeneity. 
This  qualification  the  reader  must  habitually  bear  in  mind. 


THE   LAW  OF   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  331 

taining  but  two.  Among  individual  stars  there  are  great 
contrasts^  real  as  well  as  apparent^  of  size;  and  from  their 
unlike  colours,  as  well  as  from  their  unlike  spectra, 
numerous  contrasts  among  their  physical  states  are  infer- 
able. Beyond  which  heterogeneities  in  detail  there  are 
general  heterogeneities.  Nebulge  are  abundant  in  some 
regions  of  the  heavens,  while  in  others  there  are  only  stars. 
Here  the  celestial  spaces  are  almost  void  of  objects;  and  there 
we  see  dense  aggregations,  nebular  and  stellar  together. 

The  matter  of  our  Solar  System  during  its  concentration 
has  become  more  multiform.  The  aggregating  gaseous 
spheroid,  dissipating  its  motion,  acquiring  more  marked  un- 
likenesses  of  density  and  temperature  between  interior  and 
exterior,  and  leaving  behind  from  time  to  time  annular  por- 
tions of  its  mass,  underwent  differentiations  that  increased  in 
number  and  degree,  until  there  was  evolved  the  existing  or- 
ganized group  of  sun,  planets,  and  satellites.  The  hetero- 
geneity of  this  is  variously  displayed.  There  are  the  immense 
contrasts  between  the  sun  and  the  planets,  in  bulk  and  in 
weight ;  as  well  as  the  subordinate  contrasts  of  Hke  kind 
between  one  planet  and  another,  and  between  the  planets 
and  their  sateUites.  There  is  the  further  contrast  between 
the  sun  and  the  planets  in  respect  of  temperature ;  and  there  is 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  planets  and  satellites  differ  from 
one  another  in  their  proper  heats,  as  well  as  in  the  heats  which 
they  receive  from  the  sun.  Bearing  in  mind  that  they  also 
differ  in  the  incHnations  of  their  orbits,  the  incHnations  of 
their  axes,  in  their  specific  gravities  and  in  their  physical 
constitutions,  we  see  how  decided  is  the  complexity  wrought 
in  the  Solar  System  by  those  secondary  re-distributions  that 
have  accompanied  the  primary  re-distribution. 

§  118.  Passing  from  this  hypothetical  illustration,  which 
must  be  taken  for  what  it  is  worth,  without  prejudice  to  tho 
general  argument,  let  us  descend  to  an  order  of  evidence 
less  open  to  objection. 


832         THE  LAW  0¥   EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

It  is  now  generally  agreed  among  geologists  tliat  tlie  Earth 
was  once  a  mass  of  molten  matter ;  and  that  its  inner  parts 
are  still  fluid  and  incandescent.  Originally,  then,  it  was 
comparatively  homogeneous  in  consistence ;  and,  because  of 
the  circulation  that  takes  place  in  heated  fluids,  must  have 
been  comparatively  homogeneous  in  temperature.  It  must, 
too,  have  been  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  consisting 
partly  of  the  elements  of  air  and  water,  and  partly  of  those 
various  other  elements  which  assume  gaseous  forms  at  liigh 
temperatures.  That  cooling  by  radiation  which,  though  ori- 
ginally far  more  rapid  than  now,  necessarily  required  an  im- 
mense time  to  produce  decided  change,  must  at  length 
have  resulted  in  difierentiating  the  portion  most  able  to  part 
with  its  heat ;  namely,  the  surface.  A  further  cooling,  lead- 
ing to  deposition  of  all  solidifiable  elements  contained  in  the 
atmosphere,  and  finally  to  precipitation  of  the  water  and 
separation  of  it  from  the  air,  must  thus  have  caused  a  second 
marked  difierentiation ;  and  as  the  condensation  must  have 
Commenced  on  the  coolest  parts  of  the  surface — ^namely, 
about  the  poles — there  must  so  have  resulted  the  first  geo- 
graphical distinctions. 

To  these  illustrations  of  growing  heterogeneity,  which, 
though  deduced  from  the  known  laws  of  matter,  may  be  re- 
garded as  hypothetical.  Geology  adds  an  extensive  series 
that  have  been  inductively  established.  The  Earth's  struc- 
ture has  been  age  after  ago  further  involved  by  the  multi- 
plication of  the  strata  which  form  its  crust ;  and  it  has  been 
age  after  age  further  involved  by  the  increasing  composi- 
tion of  these  strata,  the  more  recent  of  which,  formed 
from  the  detritus  of  the  more  ancient,  are  many  of  them 
rendered  highly  complex  by  the  mixtures  of  materials  they 
contain.  This  heterogeneity  has  been  vastly  in- 

creased by  the  action  of  the  Earth's  still  molten  nucleus 
on  its  envelope;  whenco  have  resulted  not  only  a  great 
variety  of  igneous  rocks,  but  the  tilting  up  of  sedi- 
mentary strata  at  all  angles,  the  formation  of  faults  and 


THE    LAW   OF   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  333 

metallic  veins,  the  production  of  endless  dislocations  and  ir- 
regularities. Again,  geologists  tcacli  us  that  tlie 
Earth's  surface  has  been  growing  more  varied  in  elevation — 
that  the  most  ancient  mountain  systems  are  the  smallest, 
and  the  Andes  and  Himalayas  the  most  modern;  while,  in 
all  probability,  there  have  been  corresponding  changes  in 
the  bed  of  the  ocean.  As  a  consequence  of  this  ceaseless 
multiplication  of  differences,  we  now  find  that  no  consider- 
able portion  of  the  Earth's  exposed  surface,  is  like  any  other 
portion,  either  in  contour,  in  geologic  structure,  or  in 
chemical  composition ;  and  that,  in  most  parts,  the  surface 
changes  from  mile  to  mile  in  all  these  characteristics. 

There  has  been  simultaneously  going  on  a  gradual  dif- 
ferentiation of  climates.  As  fast  as  the  Earth  cooled  and 
its  crust  solidified,  inequalities  of  temperature  arose  be- 
tween those  parts  of  its  surface  most  exposed  to  the  sun 
and  those  less  exposed;  and  thus  in  time  there  came  to 
be  the  marked  contrasts  between  regions  of  perpetual  ice 
and  snow,  regions  where  winter  and  summer  alternately 
reign  for  periods  varying  according  to  the  latitude,  and 
regions  where  summer  follows  summer  with  scarcely 
an  appreciable   variation.  Meanwhile,   elevations 

and  subsidences,  recurring  here  and  there  over  the  Earth's 
crust,  tending  as  they  have  done  to  produce  irre- 
gular distribution  of  land  and  sea,  have  entailed  various 
modifications  of  climate  beyond  those  dependent  on  latitude; 
while  a  yet  further  series  of  such  modifications  has  been 
produced  by  increasing  differences  of  height  in  the  lands, 
which  have  in  sundry  places  brought  arctic,  temperate, 
and  tropical  climates  to  within  a  few  miles  of  one  another. 
The  general  results  of  these  changes  are,  that  every 
extensive  region  has  its  own  meteorologic  conditions,  and 
that  every  locaUty  in  each  region  differs  more  or  less  from 
others  in  those  conditions  :  as  in  its  structure,  its  contour, 
its  soil. 

Thus,   between   our   existing   Earth,  the  phenomena  of 


334  THE   LAW  OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

wliose  varied  crust  neither  geographers^  geologists,  minera- 
logists nor  meteorologists  have  yet  enumerated,  and  the 
molten  globe  out  of  which  it  was  evolved,  the  contrast  in 
heterogeneity  is  sufficiently  striking. 

§  119.  The  clearest,  most  numerous,  and  most  varied  il- 
lustrations of  the  advance  in  multiformity  that  accompanies 
the  advance  in  integration,  are  furnished  by  living  organic 
bodies.  Distinguished  as  we  found  these  to  be  by  the  great 
quantity  of  their  contained  motion,  they  exhibit  in  an  ex- 
treme degree  the  secondary  re-distributions  which  contained 
motion  facilitates.  The  history  of  every  plant  and  every 
animal,  while  it  is  a  history  of  increasing  bulk,  is  also  a 
history  of  simultaneously-increasing  differences  among  the 
parts.     This  transformation  has  several  aspects. 

The  chemical  composition  which  is  almost  uniform  through- 
out the  substance  of  a  germ,  vegetal  or  animal,  gradually 
ceases  to  be  uniform.  The  several  compounds,  nitrogenous 
and  non-nitrogenous,  which  were  homogeneously  mixed, 
segregate  by  degrees,  become  diversely  proportioned  in 
diverse  places,  and  produce  new  compounds  by  transforma- 
tion or  modification.  In  plants  the  albuminous 
and  amylaceous  matters  which  form  the  substance  of  the 
embryo,  give  origin  here  to  a  preponderance  of  chlorophyll 
and  there  to  a  preponderance  of  cellulose.  Over  the  parts 
that  are  becoming  leaf-surfaces,  certain  of  the  materials  are 
metamorphosed  into  wax.  In  this  place  starch  passes  into 
one  of  its  isomeric  equivalents,  sugar ;  and  in  that  place 
into  another  of  its  isomeric  equivalents,  gum.  By  secondary 
change  some  of  the  cellulose  is  modified  into  wood;  while 
some  of  it  is  modified  into  the  allied  substance  which,  in 
large  masses,  we  distinguish  as  cork.  And  the  more  numer- 
ous compounds  thus  gradually  arising,  initiate  further  un- 
likenesses  by  mingling  in  unlike  ratios.  An  animal- 
ovum,  the  components  of  which  are  at  first  evenly  diffuser} 
among  one  another,  chemically  transforms  itself  in  like 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  335 

manner.     Its  protein,,  its  fats,  its  salts,  become  dissimilarly 
proportioned  in  different  localities ;    and  multiplication  of 
isomeric  forms  leads  to  furtlier  mixtures  and  combinations 
tbat  constitute  many  minor  distinctions  of  parts.     Here  a 
mass  darkening  by  accumulation  of  bematine,  presently  dis- 
Kolves  into   blood.     There    fatty  and   albuminous   matters 
uniting,  compose  nerve-tissue.    At  tbis  spot  tbe  nitrogenous 
substance  takes  on  tbe  character  of  cartilage ;  and  at  tbat, 
calcareous  salts,  gathering  together  in  the  cartilage,  lay  tbe 
foundation   of   bone.     All    these   chemical   differentiations 
slowly  and  insensibly  become  more  marked  and  more  mul- 
tiplied. 

Simultaneously  there  arise  contrasts  of  minute  struc- 
ture. Distinct  tissues  take  the  place  of  matter  that 
had  previously  no  recognizable  unlikenesses  of  parts ;  and 
each  of  the  tissues  first  produced  undergoes  secondary 
modifications,  causing  sub-species  of  tissues.  The 

granular  protoplasm  of  the  vegetal  germ,  equally  with  that 
which  forms  the  unfolding  point  of  every  shoot,  gives  origin 
to  cells  that  are  at  first  alike.  Some  of  these,  as  they  grow, 
flatten  and  unite  by  their  edges  to  form  the  outer  layer. 
Others  elongate  greatly,  and  at  the  same  time  join  together 
in  bundles  to  lay  the  foundation  of  woody-fibre.  Before 
they  begin  to  elongate,  certain  of  these  ceUs  show  a  break- 
ing-up  of  the  Hning  deposit,  which,  during  elongation, 
becomes  a  spiral  thread,  or  a  reticulated  framework,  or  a 
series  of  rings ;  and  by  the  longitudinal  union  of  cells  so 
lined,  vessels  are  formed.  Meanwhile  each  of  these  dif- 
ferentiated tissues  is  re-differentiated :  instance  that  which 
constitutes  the  essential  part  of  the  leaf,  the  upper 
stratum  of  which  is  composed  of  chlorophyll- cells  that 
remain  closely  packed,  while  the  lower  stratum  becomes 
spongy.  Of  the  same  general  character  are  the 

transformations  undergone  by  the  fertilized  ovum,  which,  at 
first  a  cluster  of  similar  cells  quickly  reaches  a  stage  in 
which  these  cells  have  become  dissimilar.  More  frequently  ro* 


I 


336  TUB   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

curring  fission  of  the  superficial  cells^  a  resulting  smaller 
size  of  tliein,  and  subsequent  union  of  them  into  an  outer 
layer,  constitute  tlie  first  difierentiation ;  and  tlie  middle 
area  of  this  layer  is  rendered  unlike  the  rest  by  still  more 
active  processes  of  like  kind.  By  such  modifications  upon 
modifications,  too  multitudinous  to  enumerate  here,  arise 
the  classes  and  sub-classes  of  tissues  which,  variously  in- 
volved one  with  another,  compose  organs. 

Equally  conforming  to  the  law  are  the  changes  of  general 
shape  and  of  the  shapes  of  organs.  All  germs  are  at  first 
spheres  and  all  organs  are  at  first  buds  or  mere  rounded 
lumps.  From  this  primordial  uniformity  and  simplicity, 
there  takes  place  divergence,  both  of  the  wholes  and  the 
leading  parts,  towards  multiformity  of  contour  and  towards 
complexity  of  contour.  Cut  away  the  compactly- 

folded  young  leaves  that  terminate  every  shoot,  and  the 
nucleus  is  found  to  be  a  central  knob  bearing  lateral  knobs, 
one  of  which  may  grow  into  either  a  leaf,  a  sepal,  a  petal, 
a  stamen,  a  carpel :  all  these  eventually-unlike  parts  being  at 
first  alike.  The  shoots  themselves  also  depart  from  their 
primitive  unity  of  form;  and  while  each  branch  becomes  more 
or  less  difierent  from  the  rest,  the  whole  exposed  part  of  the 
plant  becomes  difierent  from  the  imbedded  part.  So, 

too,  is  it  with  the  organs  of  animals.  One  of  the  Articulata, 
for  instance,  has  limbs  that  are  originally  indistinguishable 
from  one  another — compose  a  homogeneous  series ;  but  by 
continuous  divergences  there  arise  among  them  unliknesses 
of  size  and  form,  such  as  we  see  in  the  crab  and  the  lobster. 
Vertebrate  creatures  equally  exemplify  this  truth.  The 
wings  and  legs  of  a  bird  are  of  similar  shapes  when  they 
bud-out  from  the  sides  of  the  embryo. 

Ttius  in  every  plant  and  animal,  conspicuous  secon- 
dary re-distributions  accompany  the  primary  re-distribu- 
tion. A  first  difierenco  between  two  parts ;  in  each 
of  these  parts  other  difiercnces  that  presently  become  aa 
marked  as  the  first ;  and  a  like  multiplication  of  difierences 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.         337 

in  geometrical  progression,,  until  there  is  reached  tliat  com- 
plex combination  constituting  tlie  adult.  This  is  the  history 
of  all  living  things  whatever.  Pui*suing  an  idea  which 
Harvey  set  afloat^  it  has  been  shown  by  Wolff  and  Yon  Baer, 
that  during  its  evolution  each  organism  passes  from  a  stato 
Df  homogeneity  to  a  state  of  heterogeneity.  For  a  gene- 
ration this  truth  has  been  accepted  by  biologists.* 

§  120.  When  we  pass  from  individual  forms  of  life  to  life 
in  general^  and  ask  whether  the  same  law  is  seen  in  the 
ensemble  of  its  manifestations — whether  modern  plants  and 
animals  have  more  heterogeneous  structures  than  ancient  ones, 

*  It  was  in  1852  that  I  became  acquainted  with  Von  Baer'a  expression  of 
this  general  principle.  The  universality  of  law  had  ever  been  with  me  a 
postulate,  carrying  with  it  a  correlative  belief,  tacit  if  not  avowed,  in  unity 
of  method  throughout  Nature.  This  statement  that  every  plant  and 
animal,  originally  homogeneous  becomes  gradually  heterogeneous,  set  up  a 
process  of  co-ordination  among  accumulated  thoughts  that  were  previously 
unorganized,  or  but  partially  organized.  It  is  true  that  in  Social  Statics 
(Part  IV.,  §§  12—16),  written  before  meeting  with  Von  Baer's  formula,^ 
the  development  of  an  individual"  organism  and  the  development  of  the 
social  organism,  are  described  as  alike  consisting  in  advance  from  simplicity 
to  complexity,  and  from  independent  like  parts  to  mutually-dependent 
unlike  parts — a  parallelism  implied  by  Milne-Edwards' doctrine  of  "the 
physiological  division  of  labour."  But  though  admitting  of  extension  to 
other  super- organic  phenomena,  this  statement  was  too  special  to  admit  of 
extension  to  inorganic  phenomena.  The  great  aid  rendered  by  Von  Baer'a 
formula  arose  from  its  higher  generality  ;  since,  only  when  organic  trai:  - 
formations  had  been  expressed  in  the  most  general  terms,  was  the  way 
opened  for  seeing  what  they  had  in  common  with  inorganic  transformations. 
The  conviction  that  this  process  of  change  gone  through  by  each  evolving 
organism,  is  a  process  gone  thi'ough  by  all  things,  found  its  first  coherent 
statement  in  an  essay  on  *'  Progress  :  its  Law  and  Cause  ; "  which  I  pub- 
lished in  the  Westminster  Review  for  April,  1857 — an  essay  with  the  first 
half  of  which  this  chapter  coincides  in  substance,  and  partly  in  form. 
In  that  essay,  however,  as  also  in  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  I 
fell  into  the  error  of  supposing  that  the  transformation  of  the  homo- 
geneous into  the  heterogeneous  constitutes  Evolution  j  whereas,  as  w  % 
have  seen,  it  constitutes  the  secondary  re -distribution  accompanying 
the  primary  re-distribution  in  that  Evolution  which  we  distinguish  as  com- 
pound— or  gather,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  it  constitutes  the  mjoat  con-, 
Bpicuous  part  of  this  secondary  re-distribution. 
16 


338  THE    LAW   OP   EVOLUTION    COI^'TTXUED. 

and  whetlier  the  Earth's  present  Flora  and  Fauna  are  more 

ricterogeneous  than  the  Flora  and  Fauna  of  the  past, — we  find 
die  evidence  so  fragmentary,  that  every  conclusion  is  open  to 
dispute.  Two- thirds  of  the  Earth's  surface  being  covered 
by  water ;  a  great  part  of  the  exposed  land  being  inaccessible 
to,  or  untravelled  by,  the  geologist ;  the  greater  part  of  the 
remainder  having  been  scarcely  more  than  glanced  at ;  and 
even  the  most  familiar  portions,  as  England,  having  been  so 
imperfectly  explored,  that  a  new  series  of  strata  has  been 
added  within  these  few  years, — it  is  manifestly  impossible  for 
us  to  say  with  any  certainty  what  creatures  have,  and  what 
have  not,  existed  at  any  particular  period.  Considering  the 
perishable  nature  of  many  of  the  lower  organic  forms,  the 
metamorphosis  of  many  sedimentary  strata,  and  the  gaps  that 
occur  among  the  rest,  we  shall  see  further  reason  for  distrust- 
ing our  deductions.  On  the  one  hand,  the  repeated  discovery 
of  vertebrate, remains  in  strata  previously  supposed  to  contain 
none, — of  reptiles  where  only  fish  were  thought  to  exist, — of 
mammals  where  it  was  believed  there  were  no  creatures  higher 
than  reptiles  ;  renders  it  daily  more  manifest  how  small  is  the 
value  of  negative  evidence.  On  the  other  hand,  the  ^orthless- 
ness  of  the  assumption  that  we  have  discovered  the  earliest, 
or  anything  like  the  earliest,  organic  remains,  is  becoming 
equally'  clear.  That  the  oldest  known  aqueous  formations  have 
been  greatly  changed  by  igneous  action,  and  that  still  older 
ones  have  been  totally  transformed  by  it,  is  becoming  undeni- 
able. And  the  fact  that  sedimentary  strata  earlier  than  any 
we  know,  have  been  melted  up,  being  admitted,  it  must  also 
be  admitted  that  we  cannot  say  how  far  back  in  time  this 
destruction  of  sedimentary  strata  has  been  going  on.  Thus  it 
13  manifest  that  the  title  Palcsozoic,  as  applied  to  the  earliest 
known  fossiliferous  strata,  involves  a  petitio  principii ;  and 
that;  for  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary,  only  the  last  few 
chapters  of  the  Earth's  biological  history  may  have  come  down 
to  us. 

All  inferences  drawn  from  such  scattered  fiicts  as  we  find* 


THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  OOV 

must  thus  be  extremely  questionable.     If,  looking  at  the 
general  aspect  of  evidence,  a  progressionist-  argues  that  the 
earliest  known  vertebrate  remains  are  tbose  of  Fishes,  which 
are  the  most  homogeneous  of  the  vertebrata ;  that  E-eptiles, 
which  are  more  heterogeneous,  are  later  ;  and  that  later  stUl, 
and  more  heterogeneous  still,  are  Mammals  and  Birds  ;  it  may 
be  replied  that  the  Palaeozoic  deposits,  not  being  estuary  de- 
posits, are  not  likely  to  contain  the  remains  of  terrestrial  ver- 
tebrata, which  may  nevertheless  have  existed  at  that  era. 
The  same  answer  may  be  made  to  the  argument  that  the 
vertebrate  fauna  of  the  Palaeozoic  period,  consisting  so  far  as 
we  know,  entirely  of  Fishes,  was  less  heterogeneous  than  the 
modern  vertebrate  fauna,  which  includes  Eeptiles,  Birds  and 
Mammals,  of  multitudinous  genera ;    or  the   uniformitarian 
may  contend  with  great  show  of  truth,  that  this  appearance 
of  higher  and  more  varied  forms  in  later  geologic  eras,  was 
due  to  progressive  immigration — that  a  continent  slowly 
upheaved  from  the  ocean  at  a  point  remote  from  pre-existing 
continents,  would  necessarily  be  peopled  from  them  in  a  suc- 
cession like  that  which  our  strata  display.  At  the 
same  time  the  counter- arguments  may  be  proved  equally  in- 
conclusive. "When,  to  show  that  there  cannot  have  been  a  con- 
tinuous evolution  of  the  more  homogeneous  organic  forms 
into  the  more  heterogeneous  ones,  the.  uniformitarian  points 
to  the  breaks  that  occur  in  the  succession  of  these  forms ;  there 
is  the  sufficient  answer  that  current  geological  changes  show 
us  why  such  breaks  mMst  occur,  and  why,  by  subsidences  and 
elevations  of  large  area,  there  must  be  produced  such  marked 
breaks  as  those  which  divide  the  three  great  geologic  epochs. 
Or  again,  if  the  opponent  of  the  development  hj^othesis  cites 
the  facts  set  forth  by  Professor  Huxley  in   his  lecture  on 
"  Persistent  Types  "—if  he  points  out  that  "  of  some  two 
hundred  known  orders  of  plants,  not  one  is  exclusively  fossil,'' 
-while  "  among  animals,  there  is  not  a  single  totally  extinct 
class ;  and  of  the  orders,  at  the  outside  not  more  than  seven 
per  cent,  are  unrepresented  in  the  existing  creation  " — ii'  he 


340  TUE   LAW  OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

urges  that  among  these  some  have  continued  from  the 
Silurian  epoch  to  our  own  day  with  scarcely  any  change — 
and  if  he  infers  that  there  is  evidently  a  much  greater  average 
resemblance  between  the  living  forms  of  the  past  and  those  of 
the  present,  than  consists  with  this  hj^othesis ;  there  is  still 
a  satisfactory  reply,  on  which  in  fact  Prof.  Huxley  insists ; 
namely,  that  we  have  evidence  of  a  "  pre-goologic  era  "  of 
unlaiown  duration.  And  indeed,  when  it  is  remembered, 
that  the  enormous  subsidences  of  the  Silurian  period  show 
the  Earth's  crust  to  have  been  approximately  as  thick  then  as 
it  is  now — when  it  is  concluded  that  the  time  taken  to  form 
so  thick  a  crust,  must  have  been  immense  as  compared  with 
the  time  which  has  since  elapsed — when  it  is  assumed,  as  it 
must  be,  that  during  this  comparatively  immense  time  the 
geologic  and  biologic  changes  went  on  at  their  usual  rates  ; 
it  becomes  manifest,  not  only  that  the  palaeontological 
records  which  we  find,  do  not  negative  the  theoiy  of 
evolution,  but  that  they  are  such  as  might  rationally  bo 
looked  for. 

Moreover,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  though  the  evidence 
suffices  neither  for  proof  nor  disproof,  yet  some  of  its  most 
conspicuous  facts  support  the  belief,  that  the  more  heteroge- 
neous organisms  and  groups  of  organisms,  have  been  evolved 
from  the  less  heterogeneous  ones.  The  average  community 
of  type  between  the  fossils  of  adjacent  strata,  and  still  more 
the  community  that  is  found  between  the  latest  tertiary 
fossils  and  creatures  now  existing,  is  one  of  these  facts.  The 
discovery  in  some  modern  deposits  of  such  forms  as  the 
PaloDotherium  and  Anaplotherium,  which,  if  we  may  rely  on 
Prof.  Owen,  had  a  type  of  structure  intermediate  between 
some  of  the  types  now  existing,  is  another  of  these  facts.  And 
the  comparatively  recent  appearance  of  Man,  is  a  third  fact  of 
this  kind,  which  possesses  still  greater  significance.  Hence 
we  may  say,  that  though  our  knowledge  of  past  life  upon  the 
Earth,  is  too  scanty  to  justify  us  in  asserting  an  evolution  of 
the  simple  into  the  complex,  either  in  individual  forms  or  in 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  341 

the  aggregate  of  forms  ;  yet  the  knowledge  we  have,  not  only 
consists  with  the  belief  that  there  has  been  such  an  evolution, 
but  rather  supports  it  than  otherwise. 

§121.^^Tiether  an  advance  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous  is  or  is  not  displayed  in  the  biological  history 
of  the  globe,  it  is  clearly  enough  displayed  in  the  progress  of 
the  latest  and  most  heterogeneous  creature — Man.  It  is  alike 
true  that,  during  the  period  in  which  the  Earth  has  been 
peopled,  the  human  organism  has  grown  more  heterogeneous 
among  the  ci\alized  divisions  of  the  species;  and  that  the 
species,  as  a  whole,  has  been  made  more  heterogeneous  by 
the  multiplication  of  races  and  the  differentiation  of  these 
races  from  each  other.  In  proof  of  the  first  of  these 

positions,  we  may  cite  the  fact  that,  in  the  relative  develop- 
ment of  the  limbs,  the  civilized  man  departs  more  widely 
from  the  general  type  of  the  placental  mammalia,  than  do  the 
lower  human  races.  Though  often  possessing  well-developed 
body  and  arms,  the  Papuan  has  extremely  small  legs :  thus 
reminding  us  of  the  quadrumana,  in  which  there  is  no  great 
contrast  in  size  between  the  hind  and  fore  limbs.  But  in  the 
European,  the  greater  length  and  massiveness  of  the  legs  has 
become  very  marked — the  fore  and  hind  limbs  are  relatively 
more  heterogeneous.  Again,  the  greater  ratio  which  the 
cranial  bones  bear  to  the  facial  bones,  illustrates  the  same 
truth.  Among  the  vertebrata  in  general,  evolution  is  marked 
by  an  increasing  heterogeneity  in  the  vertebral  column,  and 
more  especially  in  the  segments  constituting  the  skidl :  the 
Ligher  forms  being  distinguished  by  the  relatively  larger  size 
of  the  bones  which  cover  the  brain,  and  the  relatively  smaller 
size  of  those  which  form  the  jaws,  &e.  Now,  this  character- 
istic, which  is  stronger  in-  Man  than  in  any  other  creature,  is 
stronger  in  the  .European  than  in  the  savage.  Moreover, 
judging  from  the  greater  extent  and  variety  of  faculty  he  ex- 
hibits, we  may  infer  that  the  civilized  man  has  also  a  more 
com^^lex  or  heterogeneous  nervous  system  than  the  uncivil- 


842  TIIE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

ized  man  ;  and  indeed  the  fact  is  in  part  visible  in  the  in- 
creased ratio  which  his  cerebrum  bears  to  the  subjacent 
ganglia.  If  further  elucidation  be  needed,  we  may  find  it  in 
every  nursery.  The  infant  European  has  sundry  marked 
points  of  resemblance  to  the  lower  human  races ;  as  in  the 
flatness  of  the  alse  of  the  nose,  the  depression  of  its  bridge,  the 
divergence  and  forward  opening  of  the  nostrils,  the  form  of 
the  lips,  the  absence  of  a  frontal  sinus,  the  vridth  between  the 
eyes,  the  smallness  of  the  legs.  JN^ow,  as  the  developmental 
process  by  which  these  traits  are  turned  into  those  of  the 
adult  European,  is  a  continuation  of  that  change  from  the 
homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous  displayed  during  the  pre- 
vious evolution  of  the  embryo,  which  every  physiologist  will 
admit ;  it  follows  that  the  parallel  developmental  process  by 
which  the  like  traits  of  the  barbarous  races  have  been  turned 
into  those  of  the  civilized  races,  has  also  been  a  continuation 
of  the  change  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogene- 
ous. The  truth  of  the  second  position — that  Mankind, 
as  a  whole,  have  become  more  heterogeneous — is  so  obvious  as 
scarcely  to  need  illustration.  Every  work  on  Ethnology,  by 
its  divisions  and  subdivisions  of  races,  bears  testimony  to  it. 
Even  were  we  to  admit  the  hypothesis  that  Mankind  origin- 
ated from  several  separate  stocks,  it  would  still  remain  true 
that  as,  from  each  of  these  stocks,  there  have  sprung  many 
now  widely  different  tribes,  which  are  proved  by  philological 
evidence  to  have  had  a  common  origin,  the  race  as  a  whole 
is  far  less  homogeneous  than  it  once  was.  Add  to  which, 
that  we  have,  in  the  Anglo-Americans,  an  example  of  a  new 
variety  arising  within  these  few  generations  ;  and  that,  if  we 
may  trust  to  the  descriptions  of  observers,  we  are  likely  soon 
to  have  another  such  example  in  AustraKa. 

§  122.  On  passing  from  Humanity  under  its  individual  form, 
to  Humanity  as  socially  embodied,  we  find  the  general  law  still 
more  variously  exemplified.  The  change  from  the  homo- 
geneous to  the  heterogeneous,  is  displayed  equally  in  the 


THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION    CONTINUED.  3i'J 

progress  of  civilization  as  a  whole,  and  in  the  progress  of 
every  tribe  or  nation  ;  and  is  stiU  going  on  with  increasing 
rapidity. 

As  we  see  in  existing  barbarous  tribes,  society  in  its  first 
and  lowest  form  is  a  homogeneous  aggregation  of  individuals 
having  like  powers  and  like  functions  :  the  only  marked  dif- 
ference of  function  being  that  which  accompanies  difference 
of  sex.  Every  man  is  warrior,  hunter,  fisherman,  tool-maker, 
builder ;  every  woman  performs  the  same  drudgeries ;  every 
family  is  self-sufficing,  and,  save  for  purposes  of  aggression 
and  defence,  might  as  well  live  apart  from  the  rest.  Very 
early,  however,  in  the  process  of  social  evolution,  we  find  an 
incipient  differentiation  between  the  governing  and  the  go- 
verned. Some  Idnd  of  chieftainship  seems  coeval  with  the 
first  advance  from  the  state  of  separate  wandering  families  to 
that  of  a  nomadic  tribe.  The  authority  of  the  strongest 
makes  itself  felt  among  a  body  of  savages,  as  in  a  herd  of  ani- 
mals, or  a  posse  of  schoolboys.  At  first,  however,  it  is  indefi- 
nite, uncertain ;  is  shared  by  others  of  scarcely  inferior  power ; 
and  is  unaccompanied  by  any  difference  in  occupation  or  style 
of  living :  the  first  ruler  kills  his  owti  game,  makes  his  own 
weapons,  builds  his  own  hut,  and,  economically  considered, 
does  not  differ  from  others  of  his  tribe.  Gradually,  as  the 
tribe  progresses,  the  contrast  between  the  governing  and  the 
governed  grows  more  decided.  Supreme  power  becomes  here- 
ditary in  one  family  ;  the  head  of  that  family,  ceasing  to  pro- 
vide for  his  own  wants,  is  served  by  others  ;  and  he  begins  to 
assume  the  sole  office  of  ruling.  At  the  same  timo 

there  has  been  arising  a  co-ordinate  species  of  government 
— that  of  Religion.  As  all  ancient  records  and  traditions 
prove,  the  earliest  rulers  are  regarded  as  divine  personages. 
I'he  maxims  and  comihands  they  uttered  during  their  lives 
are  held  sacred  after  their  deaths,  and  are  enforced  by  their 
divinely-descended  successors;  who  in  their  turns  are  pro- 
moted to  the  pantheon  of  the  race,  there  to  be  worshipped 
and  propitiated  along  with  their  predecessors  •  the  most  an- 


i344  THE    LAW   OF   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

cient  of  wlioin  is  the  supreme  god,  and  the  rest  subordinate 
gods.  For  a  long  time  these  connate  forms  of  government — 
civil  and  religious — continue  closely  associated.  For  many 
generations  the  king  continues  to  be  the  chief  priest,  and  the 
priesthood  to  be  members  of  the  royal  race.  For  many  ages 
religious  law  continues  to  contain  more  or  less  of  civil  regula- 
tion, and  civil  law  to  possess  more  or  less  of  religious  sanc- 
tion ;  and  even  among  the  most  advanced  nations  these  two 
controUing  agencies  are  by  no  means  completely  differentiated 
from  each  other.  Having  a  common  root  with  these, 

and  gradually  diverging  from  them,  we  find  yet  another  con- 
trolling agency — that  of  Manners  or  ceremonial  usages.  AU 
titles  of  honour  are  originally  the  names  of  the  god-king  ; 
afterwards  of  God  and  the  king ;  stiU.  later  of  persons  of  high 
ranli ;  and  finally  come,  some  of  them,  to  be  used  between 
man  and  man.  All  forms  of  complimentary  address  were  at 
first  the  expressions  of  submission  from  prisoners  to  their 
conqueror,  or  from  subjects  to  their  ruler,  either  human  or 
divine — expressions  that  were  afterwards  used  to  propitiate 
subordinate  authorities,  and  slowly  descended  into  ordinary 
intercourse.  All  modes  of  salutation  were  once  obeisances 
made  before  the  monarch  and  used  in  worship  of  him  after 
his  death.  Presently  others  of  the  god-descended  race  were 
similarly  saluted;  and  by  degrees  some  of  the  salutations 
have  become  the  due  of  all.*  Thus,  no  sooner  does  the  origin- 
ally homogeneous  social  mass  differentiate  into  the  governed 
and  the  governing  parts,  than  this  last  exhibits  an  incipient 
differentiation  into  religious  and  secular — Church  and  State  ; 
while  at  the  same  time  there  begins  to  be  differentiated  from 
hothj  that  less  defuiite  species  of  government  which  rules 
our  daily  intercourse — a  species  of  government  which,  as  wo 
may  see  in  heralds'  colleges,  in  books  of  the  peerage,  in  masters 
of  ceremonies,  is  not  without  a  certain  embodiment  of  its 
own.  Each  of  these  kinds  of  government  is  itself  sub- 

ject to  successive  differentiations.  In  the  course  of  ages,  there 
•  For  detailed  proof  of  thet;e  assertioub  sec  essay  on  J\fcin7icrs  and  Fashion. 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  845 

arises,  as  among  ourselves,  a  higUy  complex  political  organ 
ization  of  monarcli,  ministers,  lords  and  commons,  with  theii 
jubordinate  administrative  departments,  courts  of  justice, 
revenue  offices,  &c.,  supplemented  in  the  provinces  by  muni- 
cipal governments,  county  governments,  parish  or  union 
governments — all  of  them  more  or  less  elaborated.  By  its 
side  there  grows  up  a  highly  complex  religious  organization, 
with  its  various  grades  of  officials  from  archbishops  down  to 
sextons,  its  colleges,  convocations,  ecclesiastical  courts,  &c. ; 
to  all  which  must  be  added  the  ever-multiplying  independent 
sects,  each  with  its  general  and  local  authorities.  And  at  tho 
same  time  there  is  developed  a  highly  complex  aggregation 
of  customs,  manners,  and  temporary  fashions,  enforced  by 
society  at  large,  and  serving  to  control  those  minor  trans- 
actions between  man  and  man  which  are  not  regulated  by 
civil  and  religious  law.  Moreover,  it  is  to  be  observed  that 
this  ever-increasing  heterogeneity  in  the  governmental  ap- 
pliances of  each  nation,  has  been  accompanied  by  an  increas- 
ing heterogeneity  in  the  governmental  appliances  of  diffijrent 
nations  :  aU  of  which  are  more  or  less  unlike  in  their  political 
systems  and  legislation,  in  their  creeds  and  religious  institu- 
tions, in  their  customs  and  ceremonial  usages. 

Simultaneously  there  has  been  going  on  a  second  differen- 
tiation of  a  more  famihar  kind ;  that,  namely,  by  which  the 
mass  of  the  commimity  has  been  segregated  into  distinct 
classes  and  orders  of  workers.  While  the  governing  part  has 
undergone  the  complex  development  above  detailed,  the  go- 
verned part  has  undergone  an  equally  complex  development ; 
which  has  resulted  in  that  minute  division  of  labour  charac- 
terizing advanced  nations.  It  is  needless  to  trace, 
out  this  progress  from  its  first  stages,  up  through  the  caste 
divisions  of  the  East  and  the  incorporated  guilds  of  Europe, 
to  the  elaborate  producing  and  distributing  organization  ex- 
isting among  ourselves.  Political  economists  have  long  since 
indicated  the  evolution  which,  beginning  with  a  tribe  whose 
members  severally  perform  the  same  actions,  each  for  himself 


5-10  THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

ends  with  a  civilized  community  whose  members  severally 
perform  different  actions  for  each  other ;  and  they  have  fur- 
ther pointed  out  the  changes  through  which  the  solitary  pro- 
ducer of  any  one  commodity,  is  transformed  into  a  combination 
of  producers  who,  united  under  a  master,  take  separate  parts 
in  the  manufacture  of  such  commodity.  But  there 

are  yet  other  and  higher  phases  of  this  advance  from  tlir 
homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous  in  the  industrial  organiz- 
ation of  society.  Long  after  considerable  progress  ha^s  been 
made  in  the  division  of  labour  among  the  different  classes  of 
workers,  there  is  stiD.  little  or  no  division  of  labour  among  the 
widely  separated  parts  of  the  community  :  the  nation  continues 
comparatively  homogeneous  in  the  respect  that  in  each  district 
the  same  occupations  are  pursued.  But  when  roads  and  other 
means  of  transit  become  numerous  and  good,  the  different 
districts  begin  to  assume  different  functions,  and  to  become 
mutually  dependent.  The  calico-manufacture  locates  itself  in 
this  county,  the  wooUen-manufacture  in  that ;  silks  are  pro- 
duced here,  lace  there  ;  stockings  in  one  place,  shoes  in  an- 
other ;  pottery,  hardware,  cutlery,  come  to  have  their  special 
towns  ;  and  ultimately  every  locality  grows  more  or  less  dis- 
tinguished from  the  rest  by  the  leading  occupation  carried  on 
in  it.  Nay,  more,  this  subdivision  of  functions  shows  itself 
not  only  among  the  different  parts  of  the  same  nation,  but 
among  different  nations.  That  exchange  of  commodities 
which  free-trade  promises  so  greatly  to  increase,  will  ulti- 
mately have  the  effect  of  specializing,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  the  industry  of  each  people.  So  that  begin- 

ning with  a  barbarous  tribe,  almost  if  not  quite  homogeneous 
in  the  functions  of  its  members,  the  progress  has  been,  and 
still  is,  towards  an  economic  aggregation  of  the  whole  human 
race;  growing  ever  more  heterogeneous  in  respect  of  the 
separate  functions  assumed  by  separate  nations,  the  separate 
functions  assumed  by  the  local  sections  of  each  nation,  the 
separate  functions  assumed  by  the  many  kinds  of  makers 
and  traders  in  each  town,  and  the   separate  functions  as- 


THE    LAW   OF  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  347 

wimed  by  tho  workers  united  in  producing  each  com- 
modity. 

§123.  Not  only  is  the  law  thus  clearly  exemplified  in  the 
evolution  of  the  social  organism,  but  it  is  exemplified  with 
equal  clearness  in  the  evolution  of  all  products  of  himian 
thought  and  action ;  whether  concrete  or  abstract,  real  or 
ideal.     Let  us  take  Language  as  our  first  illustration. 

The  lowest  form  of  language  is  the  exclamation,  by  which 
an  entire  idea  is  vaguely  conveyed  through  a  single  sound  ;  as 
among  the  lower  animals.  That  himian  language  ever  con- 
sisted solely  of  exclamations,  and  so  was  strictly  homogeneous 
in  respect  of  its  parts  of  speech,  we  have  no  evidence.  But 
that  language  can  be  traced  down  to  a  form  in  wliich  nouns 
and  verbs  are  its  only  elements,  is  an  established  fact.  In 
the  gradual  multiplication  of  parts  of  speech  out  of  these 
primary  ones — in  the  difierentiation  of  verbs  into  active  and 
passive,  of  nouns  into  abstract  and  concrete — in  the  rise  of 
distinctions  of  mood,  tense,  person,  of  number  and  case— in 
the  fonnation  of  auxiliary  verbs,  of  adjectives,  adverbs,  pro- 
nouns, prepositions,  articles — in  the  divergence  of  thos:*  orders, 
genera,  species,  and  varieties  of  parts  of  speech  by  which 
civilized  races  express  minute  modifications  of  meaning— we 
see  a  change  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous. 
And  it  may  be  remarked,  in  passing,  that  it  is  more  especi-- 
ally  in  virtue  of  having  carried  this  subdivision  of  functions 
to  a  greater  extent  and  completeness,  that  the  English 
language  is  superior  to  all  others.  Another  aspect 

under  which  we  may  trace  the  development  of  language,  is 
the  differentiation  of  words  of  allied  meanings.  Philology 
early  disclosed  tlie  truth  that  in  all  languages  words 
may  be  grouped  into  families  having  a  common  ances- 
try. An  aborig^ial  name,  applied  indiscriminately  to  each  of 
an  extensive  and  ill- defined  class  of  things  or  actions,  pre- 
eeutly  undergoes  modifications  by  which  the  chief  divisions 
of  the  class  are  expressed.     These  several  names  springing 


348  THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

from  the  primitive  root,  themselves  become  the  parents  of 
other  names  still  further  modified.  And  by  the  aid  of  those 
systematic  modes  which  presently  arise,  of  making  derivatives 
and  forming  compound  terms  expressing  still  smaller  dis- 
tinctions, there  is  finally  developed  a  tribe  of  words  so 
heterogeneous  in  sound  and  meaning,  that  to  the  uninitiated 
it  seems  incredible  they  should  have  had  a  common  origin. 
Meanwhile,  from  other  roots  there  are  being  evolved  other 
such  tribes,  until  there  results  a  language  of  some  sixty 
thousand  or  more  unlike  words,  signifying  as  many  unlike 
objects,  qualities,  acts.  Yet  another  way  in  which 

language  in  general  advances  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous,  is  in  the  multiplication  of  languages.  Whe- 
ther, as  Max  Miiller  and  Bunsen  think,  all  languages  have 
grown  from  one  stock,  or  whether,  as  some  philologists  say, 
they  have  grown  from  two  or  more  stocks,  it  is  clear  that 
since  large  families  of  languages,  as  the  Indo-European,  are 
of  one  parentage,  they  have  become  distinct  through  a  pro- 
cess of  continuous  divergence.  The  same  diffusion  over  the 
Earth's  surface  which  has  led  to  the  differentiation  of  the 
race,  has  simultaneously  led  to  a  differentiation  of  their 
speech:  a  truth  which  we  see  further  illustrated  in  each 
nation  by  the  peculiarities  of  dialect  found  in  separate  dis- 
tricts. Thus  the  progress  of  Language  conforms  to  the 
general  law,  alike  in  the  evolution  of  languages,  in  the 
evolution  of  families  of  words,  and  in  the  evolut^-^n  of  parts 
of  speech. 

On  passing  from  spoken  to  written  language,  we  come  upon 
several  classes  of  facts,  all  having  similar  implications. 
Written  language  is  connate  with  Painting  and  Sculpture ; 
and  at  first  all  three  are  appendages  of  Architecture,  and 
have  a  direct  connexion  with  the  primary  form  of  all  Govern- 
ment— the  theocratic.  Merely  noting  by'  the  way  the  fact 
that  sundry  wild  races,  as  for  example  the  Australians  and 
the  tribes  of  South  Africa,  are  given,  to  depicting  personages 
and  events  upon  the  walls  of  caves,  which  are  probably  ro- 


THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION   CO^^TINUED.  8^i9 

gardcd  as  sacred  places,  let  us  pass  to  the  case  of  the  Egyp- 
tians. Among  them,  as  also  among  the  Assyrians,  we  find 
mural  paintings  used  to  decorate  the  temple  of  the  god  and 
the  palace  of  the  king  (which  were,  indeed,  originally  identi- 
cal) ;  and  as  such  they  were  governmental  appliances  in  the 
same  sense  that  state-pageants  and  religious  feasts  were. 
Further,  they  were  governmental  appliances  in  virtue  of 
representing  the  worship  of  the  god,  the  triumphs  of  the 
god-king,  the  submission  of  his  subjects,  and  the  punishment 
of  the  rebellious.  And  yet  again  they  were  governmental, 
as  being  the  products  of  an  art  reverenced  by  the  people  as  a 
sacred  mystery.  From   the   habitual   use   of    this 

pictorial  representation,  there  naturally  grew  up  the  but 
slightly-modified  practice  of  picture-writing  —  a  practice 
which  was  found  still  extant  among  the  Mexicans  at  the  time 
they  were  discovered.  By  abbreviations  analogous  to  those 
still  going  on  in  our  own  written  and  spoken  language,  the 
most  familiar  of  these  pictured  figures  were  successively 
simplified ;  and  ultimately  there  grew  up  a  system  of  symbols, 
most  of  TN'hich  had  but  a  distant  resemblance  to  the  things 
for  which  they  stood.  The  inference  that  the  hieroglyphics 
of  the  Egyptians  were  thus  produced,  is  confirmed  by  the  fact 
that  the  picture-writing  of  the  Mexicans  was  found  to  have 
given  birth  to  a  like  family  of  ideographic  forms  ;  and  among 
them,  as  among  the  Egyptians,  these  had  been  partially 
differentiated  into  the  kuriological  or  imitative,  and  the 
tropical  or  symbolic  :  which  were,  however,  used  together  in 
the  same  record.  In  Eg^-pt,  written  language  underwent  a 
further  differentiation ;  whence  resulted  the  hieratic  and  the 
ejnstolographic  or  enchorial :  both  of  which  are  derived  from 
the  original  hieroglyphic.  At  the  same  time  we  find  that 
for  the  expression  of  proper  names,  which  could  not  be  other- 
wise conveyed,  phonetic  symbols  were  employed  ;  and  though 
it  is  alleged  that  the  Egj^tians  never  actually  achieved  com- 
plete alphabetic  writing,  yet  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that 
these  phonetic   symbols   occasionally  used   in   aid   of   their 


S50         THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED, 

ideograpliic  ones,  were  the  germs  out  of  wliich.  alphabetic 
writing  grew.  Once  having  become  separate  from  hierogly- 
pliics,  alphabetic  writing  itself  underwent  numerous  difier- 
entiations — multiplied  alphabets  were  produced:  between 
most  of  which,  however,  more  or  less  connexion  can  still  be 
traced.  And  in  each  civilized  nation  there  has  now  grown 
up,  for  the  representation  of  one  set  of  sounds,  several  sets  of 
written  signs,  used  for  distinct  purposes.  Finally,  through  a 
yet  more  important  diiFerentiation  came  printing ;  which,  uni- 
form in  kind  as  it  w^as  at  first,  has  since  become  multiform. 

§124.  While  written  language  was  passing  through  its 
earlier  stages  of  development,  the  mural  decoration  which 
formed  its  root  was  being  differentiated  into  Painting  and 
Sculpture.  The  gods,  kings,  men,  and  animals  represented, 
were  originally  marked  by  indented  outlines  and  coloured. 
In  most  cases  these  outlines  were  of  such  depth,  and  the 
object  they  circumscribed  so  far  rounded  and  marked  out  in 
its  leading  parts,  as  to  form  a  species  of  work  intermediate 
between  intaglio  and  bas-relief.  In  other  cases  we  see  an 
advance  upon  this  :  the  raised  spaces  between  the  figures 
being  chiselled  off,  and  the  figures  themselves  appropriately 
tinted,  a  painted  bas-relief  was  produced.  The  restored 
Assyrian  architecture  at  Sydenham,  exhibits  this  style  of  art 
carried  to  greater  perfection — the  persons  and  things  repre- 
sented, though  still  barbarously  coloured,  are  carved  out 
with  more  truth  and  in  greater  detail ;  and  in  the  winged 
lions  and  bulls  used  for  the  angles  of  gatew^ays,  we  may  see 
a  considerable  advance  towards  a  completely  sculptured 
figure ;  which,  nevertheless,  is  still  coloured,  and  still  forms 
part  of  the  building.  Eut  while  in  Assyria  the  production 
of  a  statue  proper,  seems  to  have  been  little,  if  at  all,  at- 
tempted, we  may  trace  in  Egj^tian  art  the  gradual  separation 
of  the  sculptured  figure  from  the  wall.  A  walk  through  the 
collection  in  the  British  Museum  will  clearly  show  this ; 
whQe  it  will  at  the  same  time  afford  an  opportunity  of  ob 


THE   I^UV  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  351 

serving  the  evident  traces  wliicli  the  independent  statues  bear 
of  their  derivation  from  bas-relief :  seeing  that  nearly  all  of 
tliem  not  only  display  that  union  of  the  limbs  with  the  bodj 
which  is  the  characteristic  of  bas-relief,  but  have  the  back  of 
the  statue  united  from  head  to  foot  with  a  block  which 
stands  in  place  of  the  original  wall.  Greece  repeat- 

ed the  leading  stages  of  this  progress.     As  in  Egypt  and 
Assyria,  these  twin  arts  were  at  first  united  with  each  other 
and  with  their  parent.  Architecture ;    and  were  the  aids  of 
lleKgion  and  Government.     On  the  friezes  of  Greek  temples, 
U'e  see  coloured  bas-reliefs  representing  sacrifices,   battles, 
processions,  games — all  in  some  sort  religious.     On  the  pedi- 
ments we  see  painted  sculptures  more  or  less  united  with  the 
t5rmpanum,  and  having  for  subjects  the  triumphs  of  gods  or 
heroes.     Even  when  we  come  to  statues  that  are  definitely 
separated  from  the  buildings  to  which  they  pertain,  we  still 
find  them  coloured ;  and  only  in  the  later  periods  of  Greek 
civilization,  docs  the  differentiation  of  sculpture  from  paint- 
ing appear  to  have  become  complete.  In  Christian 
art  we  may  clearly  trace  a  parallel  re-genesis.     All  early 
paintings  and  sculptures  throughout  Europe,  were  religious 
in  subject — represented   Christs,   crucifixions,   virgins,   holy 
families,  apostles,   saints.     They   formed   integral   parts   of 
church  architecture,  and  were  among  the  means  of  exciting 
worship : "  as   in   Roman   Catholic   countries   they  still   are. 
Moreover,  the  early  sculptures  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  of 
virgins,  of  saints,  were  coloured ;  and  it  needs  but  to  call  to 
mind  the  painted  madonnas  and  crucifixes  still  abundant  in 
continental  churches  and  highways,  to  perceive  the  significant 
fact  that  painting  and  sculpture  continue  in  closest  connexion 
with  each  other,  where  they  continue  in  closest  connexion 
with   their  parent.      Even   when    Christian   sculpture   was 
pretty  clearly  differentiated  from  paintiag,  it  was  stiU  religious 
and   governmental   in  its  subjects — was  used  for  tombs  in 
churches   and  statues   of  kings ;    while,  at  the  same  time, 
painting,  where  not  purely  ecclesiastical,  was  applied  to  the 


852  THE   LAW  OP  EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

decoration  of  palaces,  and  besides  representing  royal  person- 
ages, was  almost  wholly  devoted  to  sacred  legends.  Only  in 
quite  recent  times  have  painting  and  sculpture  become 
entirely  secular  arts.  Only  within  these  few  centuries  has 
painting  been  divided  into  historical,  landscape,  marine, 
architectural,  genre,  animal,  still-life,  &c.,  and  sculpture 
grown  heterogeneous  in  respect  of  the  variety  of  real  and 
ideal  subjects  with  which  it  occupies  itself. 

Strange  as  it  seems  then,  we  find  it  no  less  true,  that  aU. 
forms  of  written  language,  of  painting,  and  of  sculpture,  have 
a  common  root  in  the  politico-religious  decorations  of  ancient 
temples  and  palaces.  Little  resemblance  as  they  now  have, 
the  bust  that  stands  on  the  console,  the  landscape  that  hangs 
against  the  wall,  and  the  copy  of  the  Times  lying  upon  the 
table,  are  remotely  akin  ;  not  only  in  nature,  but  by  extraction. 
The  brazen  face  of  the  knocker  which  the  postman  has  just 
lifted,  is  related  not  only  to  the  woodcuts  of  the  Illustrated  Lon- 
don Neics  which  he  is  delivering,  but  to  the  characters  of  the 
billet-doux  which  accompanies  it.  Between  the  painted  window, 
the  prayer-book  on  which  its  light  falls,  and  the  adjacent 
monument,  there  is  consanguinity.  The  efiigies  on  our  coins, 
the  signs  over  shops,  the  figures  that  fill  every  ledger,  the  coat 
of  arms  outside  the  carriage-panel,  and  the  placards  inside  the 
omnibus,  are,  in  common  with  dolls,  blue-books  and  paper-hang- 
ings, lineally  descended  from  the  rude  sculpture-paintings  iu 
which  the  Egj^ptians  represented  the  triumphs  and  worship 
of  their  god- kings.  Perhaps  no  example  can  be  given  which 
more  vividly  illustrates  the  multiplicity  and  hetarogeneity 
of  the  products  that  in  course  of  time  may  arise  by  successive 
differentiations  from  a  common  stocky 

Before  passing  to  other  classes  of  facts,  it  should  be  observ- 
ed that  the  evolution  of  the  homogeneous  into  the  hetero- 
geneous is  displayed  not  only  in  the  separation  of  Painting 
and  Sculpture  from  Architecture  and  from  each  other,  and  in 
the  greater  variety  of  subjects  they  embody ;  but  it  is  further 
shown  in  the  Btructure  of  each  work.     A  modern  picture  or 


IHE   LAW  OF  EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  353 

statue  is  of  far  more  heterogeneous  nature  than  an  ancient 
one.  An  Egyptian  sculpture-fresco  represents  all  its  figures 
as  on  one  plane — that  is,  at  the  same  distance  from  the  eye  ; 
and  so  is  less  heterogeneous  than  a  painting  that  represents 
them  as  at  various  distances  from  the  eye.  It  exhihits  all  ob- 
jects as  exposed  to  the  same  degree  of  light ;  and  so  is  less 
heterogeneous  than  a  painting  which  exhibits  different  ob- 
jects, and  different  parts  of  each  object,  as  in  different  degrees 
of  light.  It  uses  scarcely  any  but  the  primary  colours,  and 
these  in  their  full  intensity ;  and  so  is  less  heterogeneous  than 
a  painting  which,  introducing  the  primary  colours  but  sparing- 
ly, employs  an  endless  variety  of  intermediate  tints,  each  of 
heterogeneous  composition,  and  differing  from  the  rest  not 
only  in  quality  but  in  intensity.  Moreover,  we  sec 

in  these  earliest  works  a  great  uniformity  of  conception.  The 
same  arrangement  of  figures  is  perpetually  reproduced — the 
same  actions,  attitudes,  faces,  dresses.  In  Egypt  the  modes  of 
representation  were  so  fixed  that  it  was  sacrilege  to  introduce 
a  novelty  ;  and  indeed  it  could  have  been  only  in  consequence 
of  a  fixed  mode  of  representation  that  a  system  of  hierogly- 
phics became  possible.  The  Assjrrian  bas-reliefs  display  par- 
allel characters.  Deities,  kings,  attendants,  winged-figures 
and  animals,  are  severally  depicted  in  like  positions,  holding 
like  implements,  doing  like  things,  and  with  like  expression  or 
non-expression  of  face.  If  a  palm- grove  is  introduced,  all  the 
trees  are  of  the  same  height,  have  the  same  number  of  leaves, 
and  are  equidistant.  When  water  is  imitated,  each  wave  is 
a  counterpart  of  the  rest ;  and  the  fish,  almost  always  of  one 
land,  are  evenly  distributed  over  the  surface.  The  beards  of 
the  kings,  the  gods,  and  the  winged-figures,  are  everywhere 
similar  ;  as  are  the  manes  of  the  lions,  and  equally  so  those  of 
the  horses.  Hair  is  represented  throughout  by  one  form  of 
curl.  The  king's  beard  is  quite  architecturally  built  up  of  com- 
pound tiers  of  uniform  cmis,  alternating  with  twisted  tiers 
placed  in  a  transverse  direction,  and  arranged  with  perfect 
regularity ;  and  the  terminal  tufts  of  the  bulls*  tails  are  re- 


354         THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

presented  in  exactly  the    same    manner.  Without 

tracing  out  analogous  facts  in  early  Christian  art,  in  which, 
though  less  striking,  they  are  still  visible,  the  advance  in 
heterogeneity  will  be  sufficiently  manifest  on  remembering  that 
in  the  pictures  of  our  own  day  the  composition  is  endlessly 
varied ;  the  attitudes,  faces,  expressions,  unlike ;  the  subor- 
dinate objects  different  in  size,  form,  position,  texture ;  and 
more  or  less  of  contrast  even  in  the  smallest  details.  Or,  if 
we  compare  an  Egyptian  statue,  seated  bolt  upright  on  a 
block,  with  hands  on  knees,  fingers  outspread  and  parallel, 
eyes  looking  straight  forward,  and  the  two  sides  perfectly  S}in- 
metrical  in  every  particular,  with  a  statue  of  the  advanced 
Greek  or  the  modern  school,  which  is  asymmetrical  in  respect 
of  the  position  of  the  head,  the  body,  the  limbs,  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  hair,  dress,  appendages,  and  in  its  relations  to 
neighbouring  objects,  we  shall  see  the  change  from  the  homo- 
geneous to  the  heterogeneous  clearly  manifested. 

§  125.  In  the  co-ordinate  origin  and  gradual  differentiation 
of  Poetry,  Music,  and  Dancing,  we  have  another  series  of  illus- 
trations. E-hythm  in  speech,  rhythm  in  sound,  and  rhythm 
in  motion,  were  in  the  beginning,  parts  of  the  same  thing ; 
and  have  only  in  process  of  time  become  separate  things. 
Among  various  existing  barbarous  tribes  we  find  them  still 
united.  The  dances  of  savages  are  accompanied  by  some  kind 
of  monotonous  chant,  the  clapping  of  hands,  the  striking  of 
rude  instruments  :  there  are  measured  movements,  measured 
words,  and  measured  tones ;  and  the  whole  ceremony,  usually 
having  reference  to  war  or  sacrifice,  is  of  governmental  cha.- 
racter.  In  the  early  records  of  the  historic  races  we  similarly 
find  these  three  forms  of  metrical  action  united  in  religious 
festivals.  In  the  Hebrew  writings  we  read  that  the  triumphal 
ode  composed  by  Moses  on  the  defeat  of  the  Egyptians,  was 
sung  to  an  accompaniment  of  dancing  and  timbrels.  The 
Israelites  danced  and  sung  "  at  the  inauguration  of  the  golden 
calf.  ■  And  as  it  is  generally  agreed  that  this  representation 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  855 

of  the  Deity  was  borrowed  from  the  mysteries  of  Apis,  it  is 
probable  that  the  dancing  was  copied  from  that  of  the  Egyp- 
tians on  those  occasions."  There  was  an  annual  dance  in 
ShQoh  on  the  sacred  festival ;  and  David  danced  before  the 
ark.  Again,  in  Greece  the  like  relation  is  everywhere  seen  : 
the  original  type  being  there,  as  probably  in  other  cases,  a 
simultaneous  chanting  and  mimetic  representation  of  the  life 
and  adventures  of  the  god.  The  Spartan  dances  were  ac- 
companied by  hymns  and  songs  ;  and  in  general  the  Greeks 
had  "  no  festivals  or  religious  assemblies  but  what  were  ac- 
companied with  songs  and  dances '' — both  of  them  being 
forms  of  worship  used  before  altars.  Among  the  Homans, 
too,  there  were  sacred  dances :  the  Salian  and  Lupercalian 
Deing  named  as  of  that  kind.  And  even  in  Christian  countries, 
as  at  Limoges  in  comparatively  recent  times,  the  people  have 
.danced  in  the  choir  in  honour  of  a  saint.  The  in- 

cipient separation  of  these  once  united  arts  from  each  other 
and  from  religion,  was  early  visible  in  Greece.  Probably 
diverging  from  dances  partly  religious,  partly  warlike,  as  the 
Corybantian,  came  the  war-dances  proper,  of  which  there 
were  various  kinds  ;  and  from  these  resulted  secular  dances. 
Meanwhile  Music  and  Poetry,  though  still  united,  came  to 
have  an  existence  separate  from  dancing.  The  aboriginal 
Greek  poems,  religious  in  subject,  were  not  recited  but 
chanted ;  and  though  at  first  the  chant  of  the  poet  was  ac- 
companied by  the  dance  of  the  chorus,  it  ultimately  grew 
into  independence.  "Later  still,  when  the  poem  had  been 
differentiated  into  epic  and  lyric — when  it  became  the  cust()m 
to  sing  the  lyric  and  recite  the  epic— poetry  proper  was  born. 
As  during  the  same  period  musical  instruments  were  being 
multiplied,  we  may  presume  that  music  came  to  have  an  exist- 
ence apart  from  words.  And  both  of  them  were  beginning 
to  assume  other  forms  besides  the  religious.  Facts 

having  like  implications  might  be  cited  from  the  histories  of 
later  times  and  peoples ;  as  the  practices  of  our  own  early 
minstrels,  who  sang  to  the  harp  heroic  narratives  versified 


356  THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

by  themselves  to  music  of  tlieir  own  composition:  thus 
uniting  tlie  now  separate  offices  of  poet,  composer,  vocalist, 
and  instrumentalist.  But,  without  further  illustration,  the 
common  origin  and  gradual  differentiation  of  Dancing,  Poetry, 
and  Music  will  be  sufficiently  manifest. 

The  advance  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous 
is  displayed  not  only  in  the  separation  of  these  arts  from 
each  other  and  from  religion,  but  also  in  the  multiplied 
differentiations  which  each  of  them  afterwards  imdergoes. 
Not  to^  dwell  upon  the  numberless  kinds  of  dancing  that 
have,  in  course  of  time,  come  into  use ;  and  not  to  occupy 
space  in  detailing  the  progress  of  poetry,  as  seen  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  various  forms  of  metre,  of  rhyme,  and  of 
general  organization ;  let  us  confine  our  attention  to  music 
as  a  type  of  the  group.  As  argued  by  Dr  .Burney, 

and  as  implied  by  the  customs  of  still  extant  barbarous  races, 
the  first  musical  instruments  were,  without  doubt,  ^ercussiye 
— .sticks,  calabashes,  tom-toms  —  and  were  used  simply  to 
mark  the  time  of  the  dance ;  and  in  this  constant  repeti- 
tion of  the  same  sound,  we  see  music  in  its  most  homo- 
geneous form.  The  Egyptians  had  a  lyre  with  three 
strings.  The  early  lyre  of  the  Greeks  had  four,  constituting 
their  tetrachord.  In  course  of  some  centuries  lyres  of  seven 
and  eight  strings  were  employed.  And,  by  the  expiration  of 
a  thousand  years,  they  had  advanced  to  their  "  great  system  " 
of  the  double  octave.  Through  all  which  changes  there  of 
course  arose  a  greater  heterogeneity  of  melody.  Simulta- 
neously there  came  into  use  the  different  modes — Dorian, 
Ionian,  Phrygian,  -^olian,  and  Lydian — answering  to  our 
keys  :  and  of  these  there  were  ultimately  fifteen.  As  yet, 
ijowever,  there  was  but  little  heterogeneity  in  the  time  of 
their  music.  Instrumental  music  during  this  period  being 
merely  the  accompaniment  of  vocal  music,  and  vocal  music 
being  completely  subordinated  to  words, — the  singer  being 
also  the  poet,  chanting  his  own  compositions  and  making  the 
lengths  of  his  notes  agree  with  the  feet  of  his  verses  ;  there 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  857 

unavoidably  arose  a  tiresome  uniformity  of  measure,  which, 
as  Dr  Blimey  says,  "  no  resources  of  melody  could  disguise." 
Lacking  the  complex  rhythm  obtained  by  our  equal  bars  and 
unequal  notes,  the  only  rhythm  was  that  produced  by  the 
quantity  of  the  syllables,  and  was  of  necessity  comparatively 
monotonous.  And  further,  it  may  be  observed  that  the  chant 
thus  resulting,  being  like  recitative,  was  much  less  clearly 
differentiated  from  ordinary  speech  than  is  our  modern  song. 
N^evertheless,  considering  the  extended  range  of  notes  in  use, 
the  variety  of  modes,  the  occasional  variations  of  time  conse- 
quent on  changes  of  metre,  and  the  multiplication  of  instru- 
ments, we  see  that  music  had,  towards  the  close  of  Greek 
civilization,  attained  to  considerable  heterogeneity :  not  in- 
deed as  compared  with  our  music,  but  as  compared  with  that 
which  preceded  it.  As  yet,  however,  there  existed 

nothing  but  melody  :  harmony  was  unknown.  It  was  not 
until  Christian  church-music  had  reached  some  development, 
that  music  in  parts  was  evolved ;  and  then  it  came  into  exist- 
ence through  a  very  unobtrusive  differentiation.  Difficult  as 
it  may  be  to  conceive,  a  priori,  how  the  advance  from  melody 
to  harmony  could  take  place  without  a  sudden  leap,  it  is  none 
the  less  true  that  it  did  so.  The  circumstance  which  prepared 
the  way  for  it,  was  the  employment  of  two  choirs  singing  al- 
tjernately  the  same  air.  Afterwards  it  became  the  practice 
(very  possibly  first  suggested  by  ti  mistake)  for  the  second 
choir  to  commence  before  the  first  had  ceased  ;  thus  producing 
a  fugue.  With  the  simple  airs  then  in  use,  a  partially  har- 
monious fugue  might  not  improbably  thus  result ;  and  a  very 
partially  harmonious  fugue  satisfied  the  ears  of  that  age,  as 
we  know  from  still  preserved  examples.  The  idea  having 
once  been  given,  the  composing  of  airs  productive  of  fugal 
harmony  would  naturally  grow  up ;  as  in  some  way  it  did 
grow  up  out  of  this  alternate  choir- singing.  And  from  the 
fugue  to  concerted  music  of  two,  three,  four,  and  more  parts, 
the  transition  was  easy  Without  pointing  out  in 

detail  the  increasing  complexity  that  resulted  from  introducing 


358  THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

notes  of  various  lengtlis,  from  tlie  multiplication  of  keys, 
from  the  use  of  accidentals,  from  varieties  of  time,  from  mo- 
dulations and  so  forth,  it  needs  but  to  contrast  music  as  it  is, 
with  music  as  it  was,  to  see  how  immense  is  the  increase  of 
heterogeneity.  We  see  this  if,  looking  at  music  in  its  ensem- 
ble, we  enumerate  its  many  different  genera  and  species — if 
we*  consider  the  divisions  into  vocal,  instrxmiental,  and  mixed; 
and  their  subdivisions  into  music  for  different  voices  and  dif- 
ferent instruments — if  we  observe  the  many  forms  of  sacred 
music,  from  the  simple  hymn,  the  chant,  the  canon,  motet, 
anthem,  &c.,up  to  the  oratorio ;  and  the  still  more  numerous 
forms  of  secular  music,  from  the  ballad  up  to  the  serenata, 
from  the  instrumental  solo  up  to  the  symphony.  Again,  the 
same  truth  is  seen  on  comparing  any  one  sample  of  aboriginal 
music  with  a  sample  of  modern  music — even  an  ordinary 
song  for  the  piano ;  which  we  find  to  be  relatively  highly 
heterogeneous,  not  only  in  respect  of  the  varieties  in  the  pitch 
and  in  the  length  of  the  notes,  the  number  of  different  notes 
sounding  at  the  same  instant  in  company  with  the  voice,  and 
the  variations  of  strength  with  which  they  are  sounded  and 
sung,  but  in  respect  of  the  changes  of  key,  the  changes  of 
time,  the  changes  of  timhre  of  the  voice,  and  the  many  other 
modifications  of  expression.  "While  between  the  old  mono- 
tonous dance-chant  and  a  grand  opera  of  our  own  day,  with 
its  endless  orchestral  complexities  and  vocal  combinations, 
the  contrast  in  heterogeneity  is  so  extreme  that  it  seems 
scarcely  credible  that  the  one  should  have  been  the  ancestor  of 
Llie  other. 

§126.  Were  they  needed,  many  further  illustrations  m'ght 
be  cited.  Going  back  to  the  early  time  when  the  deeds  of  the 
god-king,  chanted  and  mimetically  represented  in  dance"! 
round  his  altar,  were  further  narrated  in  picture-writings  on 
the  walls  of  temples  and  palaces,  and  so  constituted  a  rude 
literature,  we  might  trace  the  development  of  Literature 
through  phases  in  which,  as  in  the  Ilebrew  Scriptures,  it  pre- 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  359 

sents  in  one  work,  theology,  cosmogony,  history,  biography, 
civil  law,  ethics,  poetry  ;  through  other  phases  in  which,  as  in 
the  Iliad,  the  religious,  martial,  historical,  the  epic,  dramatic, 
and  lyric  elements  are  similarly  commingled ;  down  to  its  pre- 
sent heterogeneous  development,  in  which  its  divisions  and 
subdivisions  are  so  numerous  and  varied  as  to  defy  complete 
classification.  Or  we  might  track  the  evolution  of  Science : 
beginning  with  the  era  in  which  it  was  not  yet  differentiated 
from  Art,  and  was,  in  union  with  Art,  the  handmaid  of  Re- 
ligion ;  passing  through  the  era  in  which  the  sciences  were  so 
few  and  rudimentary,  as  to  be  simultaneously  cultivated  by 
the  same  philosophers ;  and  ending  with  the  era  in  which  the 
genera  and  species  are  so  numerous  that  few  can  enumerate 
them,  and  no  one  can  adequately  grasp  even  one  genus.  Or 
we  might  do  the  like  with  Architecture,  with  the  Drama,  with 
Dress.  But  doubtless  the  reader  is  already  weary  of  illustra- 
tions ;  and  my  promise  has  been  amply  fulfilled.  I  believe  it 
has  been  shown  beyond  question,  that  that  which  the  German 
physiologists  have  found  to  be  a  law  of  organic  develop- 
ment, is  a  law  of  all  development.  The  advance  from  tho 
simple  to  the  complex,  through  a  process  of  successive 
differentiations,  is  seen  alike  in  the  earliest  changes  of  tho 
Universe  to  which  we  can  reason  our  way  back,  and  in  the 
earliest  changes  which  we  can  inductively  establish ;  it  is 
seen  in  the  geologic  and  climatic  evolution  of  the  Earth,  and 
of  every  single  organism  on  its  surface;  it  is  seen  in  tho 
evolution  of  Humanity,  whether  contemplated  in  the  civil- 
ized individual,  or  in  the  aggregations  of  races  ;  it  is  seen  in 
the  evolution  of  Society,  in  respect  alike  of  its  political,  its 
religious,  and  its  economical  organization ;  and  it  is  seen  in 
the  evolution  of  all  those  endless  concrete  and  abstract  pro- 
ducts of  human  activity,  which  constitute  the  environment 
of  our  daily  life.  From  the  remotest  past  which  Science  can 
fathom,  up  to  the  novelties  of  yesterday,  an  essential  trait  of 
Ef"olution  has  been  tho  transformation  of  the  homogeneous 
into  the  heterogeneous. 


860  THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

§  127.  Hence  the  general  formula  arrived  at  in  tlie  last 
chapter  needs  supplementing.  It  is  true  that  Evolution, 
under  its  primary  aspect,  is  a  change  from  a  less  coherent 
form  to  a  more  coherent  form,  consequent  on  the  dissipation 
of  motion  and  integration  of  matter;  but  this  is  by  no  means 
the  whole  truth.  Along  ^yith  a  passage  from  the  coherent 
to  the  incoherent,  there  goes  on  a  passage  from  the  uniform 
to  the  multiform.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  fact  wherever  Evolu- 
tion is  compound;  which  it  is  in  the  immense  majority  of 
cases.  While  there  is  a  progressing  concentration  of  the  •• 
aggregate,  either  by  the  closer  approach  of  the  matter 
within  its  limits,  or  by  the  drawing  in  of  further  matter,  or 
by  both;  and  while  the  more. or  less  distinct  parts  into 
which  the  aggregate  divides  and  sub-divides  are  severally  con- 
centrating; these  parts  are  also  becoming  unhke — ^unhke  in 
size,  or  in  form,  or  in  texture,  or  in  composition,  or  in  several 
or  all  of  these.  The  same  process  is  exhibited  by  the  whole 
\f  and  by  its  members.  The  entire  mass  is  integrating,  and 
|/  simultaneously  differentiating  from  other  masses ;  and  each 
member  of  it  is  also  integrating  and  simultaneously  differen- 
tiating from  other  members. 

Our  conception,  then,  must  unite  these  characters.     As 

^  we  now  understand  it.  Evolution  is  definable  as  a  change 

from  an  incoherent  homogeneity  to  a  coherent  heterogeneity, 

accompanying  tho  dissipation  of  motion  and  integration  of 

matter. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED 

§  128.  But  now,  does  this  generalization  express  tlie 
whole  truth?  Does  it  include  everything  essentially  cha- 
racterizing Evolution  and  exclude  everything  else  ?  Does 
it  comprehend  all  the  phenomena  of  secondary  re-distribution 
which  Compound  Evolution  presents,  without  comprehend- 
ing any  other  phenomena?  A  critical  examination  of  tho 
facts  will  show  that  it  does  neither. 

Changes  from  the  less  heterogeneous  to  the  more  hetero- 
geneous, which  do  not  come  within  what  we  call  Evolution, 
occur  in  every  local  disease.  A  portion  of  the  body  in  which 
there  arises  a  morbid  growth,  displays  a  new  differentiation. 
Whether  this  morbid  growth  be,  or  be  not,  more  hetero- 
geneous than  the  tissues  in  which  it  is  seated,  is  not  the 
question.  The  question  is,  whether  the  organism  as  a  whok 
is,  or  is  not,  rendered  more  heterogeneous  by  the  addition 
of  a  part  unlike  every  pre-existing  part,  in  form,  or  com- 
position, or  both.  And  to  this  question  ihere  can  be  none 
but  an  affirmative  answer.  Again,  it  may  be  con- 

tended that  the  earlier  stages  of  decomposition  in  a  dead 
body  involve  increase  of  heterogeneity.  Supposing  the 
chemical  changes  to  commence  in  some  parts  sooner  than  i^^ 
other  parts,  as  they  commonly  do ;  and  to  affect  different 
tissues  in  different  ways,  as  they  must;  it  seems  to  be  a 
.necessary  admission  that  the  entire  body,  made  up  of  undo- 
composed  parts  and  parts  decomposed  in  various  modes  and 
17 


362         THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

degrees,  lias  become  more  heterogeneous  than  it  was. 
ThougTi  greater  homogeneity  will  be  the  eventual  result,,  the 
immediate  result  is  the  opposite.  And  yet  this  immediate 
result  is  certainly  not  Evolution.  Other  instances 

are  furnished  by  social  disorders  and  disasters.  A  rebellion, 
which,  while  leaving  some  provinces  undisturbed,  develops 
itself  here  in  secret  societies,  there  in  public  demonstrations, 
and  elsewhere  in  actual  conflicts,  necessarily  renders  the 
society,  as  a  whole,  more  heterogeneous.  Or  when  a  dearth 
causes  commercial  derangement  with  its  entailed  bank- 
ruptcies, closed  factories,  discharged  operatives,  food-riots, 
incendiarisms;  it  is  manifest  that,  as  a  large  part  of  the 
community  retains  its  ordinary  organization  displaying  the 
usual  phenomena,  these  new  phenomena  must  be  regarded 
as  adding  to  the  complexity  previously  existing.  But  such 
changes,  so  far  from  constituting  further  Evolution,  are  steps 
towards  Dissolution. 

Clearly,  then,  the  definition  arrived  at  in  the  last  chapter 
is  an  imperfect  one.  The  changes  above  instanced  as  coming 
within  the  formula  as  it  now  stands,  are  so  obviously  unlike 
the  rest,  that  the  inclusion  of  them  implies  some  distinction 
hitherto  overlooked.  Such  further  distinction  we  have  now 
to  supply. 

§  129.  At  the  same  time  that  Evolution  is  a  change  from 
the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous,  it  is  a  change  from 
the  indefinite  to  the  definite.  Along  with  an  advance  from 
simplicity  to  complexity,  there  is  an  advance  from  confusion 
to  order — from  undetermined  arrangement  to  determined 
arrangement.  Development,  no  matter  of  what  kind, 
exhibits  not  only  a  multiplication  of  unlike  parts,  but  an 
increase  in  the  distinctness  with  which  these  parts  are 
marked  off  from  one  another.  And  this  is  tlie  distinction 
souo-ht.  Eor  proof,  it  needs  only  to  re-consider  the 

instances  given  above.  The  changes  constituting  disease, 
have  no   such   definiteness,    either  in  locality,   extent,  or 


THE    LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  363 

outline,  as  tlie  changes  constituting  development.  Though, 
certain  morbid  growths  are  more  common  in  some  parts  of 
the  body  than  in  others  (as  warts  on  the  hands,  cancer  on 
the  breasts,  tubercle  in  the  lungs),  yet  they  are  not  con- 
fined to  these  parts;  nor,  when  found  on  them,  are  they 
anything  like  so  precise  in  their  relative  positions  as  are 
the  normal  parts  around  them.  Their  sizes  are  extremely 
variable :  they  bear  no  such  constant  proportions  to  the 
body  as  organs  do.  Their  forms,  too,  are  far  less  specific 
than  organic  forms.  And  they  are  extremely  confused  in 
their  internal  structures.  That  is,  they  are  in  all  respects 
comparatively  indefinite.  The  like  peculiarity 

may  be  traced  in  decomposition.  That  total  indefiniteness 
to  which  a  dead  body  is  finally  reduced,  is  a  state  towards 
which  the  putrefactive  changes  tend  from  their  commence- 
ment. The  advancing  destruction  of  the  organic  com- 
pounds, blurs  the  minute  structure — diminishes  its  dis- 
tinctness. From  the  portions  that  have  undergone  most 
decay,  there  is  a  gradual  transition  to  the  less  decayed 
portions.  And  step  by  step  the  lines  of  organization, 
once  so  precise,  disappear.  Similarly  with  social 

changes  of  an  abnormal  kind.  The  disafiection  which 
initiates  a  political  outbreak,  implies  a  loosening  of  those 
ties  by  which  citizens  are  bound  up  into  distinct  classes 
and  sub-clashes.  Agitation,  growing  into  revolutionary 
meetings,  fuses  ranks  that  are  usually  separated.  Acts  of 
insubordination  break  through  the  ordained  limits  to  indi« 
vidual  conduct ;  and  tend  to  obliterate  the  lines  previously 
existing  between  those  in  authority  and  those  beneath 
them.  At  the  same  time,  by  the  arrest  of  trade,  artizans 
and  others  lose  their  occupations ;  and  in  ceasing  to  be 
functionally  distinguished,  merge  into  an  indefinite  mass. 
And  when  at  last  there  comes  positive  insurrection,  all 
magisterial  and  official  powers,  all  class  distinctions,  and 
all  industrial  differences,  cease  :  organized  society  lapses 
into  an  unorganized  aggregation  of  social  units.     Similarly, 


864         THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

in  so  far  as  famines  and  pestilences  cause  changes  from 
order  towards  disorder,  they  cause  changes  from  definite 
arrangements  to  indefinite  arrangements.  • 

Thus,  then,  is  that  increase  of  heterogeneity  which  con- 
stitutes Evolution,  distinguished  from  that  increase  of 
heterogeneity  which  does  not  do  so.  Though  in  disease 
and  de^th,  individual  or  social,  the  earliest  modifications 
are  additions  to  the  pre-existing  heterogeneity,  they  are 
not  additions  to  the  pre-existing  definiteness.  They  begin 
from  the  very  outset  to  destroy  this  definiteness;  and 
gradually  produce  a  heterogeneity  that  is  indeterminate 
instead  of  determinate.  As  a  city,  already  multiform  in  its 
variously-arranged  structures  of  various  architecture,  may 
be  made  more  multiform  by  an  earthquake,  which  leaves 
part  of  it  standing  and  overthrows  other  parts  in  difibrent 
ways  and  degrees,  but  is  at  the  same  time  reduced  from 
orderly  arrangement  to  disorderly  arrangement;  so  may 
organized  bodies  be  made  for  a  time  more  multiform  by 
changes  which  are  nevertheless  disorganizing  changes. 
And  in  the  one  case  as  in  another,  it  is  the  absence  of 
definiteness  which  distinguishes  the  multiformity  of  regres- 
sion from  the  multiformity  of  progression. 

If  advance  from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite  is  an 
essential  characteristic  of  Evolution,  we  shall  of  course  find 
it  everywhere  displayed;  as  in  the  last  chapter  we' found 
the  advance  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous. 
With  a  view  of  seeing  whether  it  is  so,  let  us  now  re-con- 
sider the  same  several  classes  of  facts. 

§  130.  Beginning,  as  before,  with  a  hypothetical  illustra- 
tion, we  have  to  note  that  each  step  in  the  evolution  of  tho 
Solar  System,  supposing  it  to  have  originated  from  diS'uscd 
matter,  was  an  advance  towards  more  definite  structure. 
At  first  irregular  in  shape  and  with  indistinct  margin,  tho 
attenuated  substance,  as  it  concentrated  and  began  to  rotate, 
must  have  assumed  the  form  of  an  oblate  spheroid,  which. 


THE   LAW   OF   EVOLUTION    JOXTINUED.  3G5 

witli  every  increase  of  density^  became  more  specific  in  out- 
line^  and  tad  its  surface  more  sharply  marked  off  from  the 
surrounding  void.  Simultaneously,  the  constituent  por- 
tions of  nebulous  matter,  instead  of  moving  independently 
towards  their  common  centre  of  gravity  from  all  points, 
and  revolving  round  it  in  various  planes,  as  they  would  at 
first  do,  must  have  had  these  planes  more  and  more  merged 
into  a  single  plane,  that  became  less  variable  as  the  concen- 
tration progressed — ^became  gradually  defined. 

According  to  th3  hypothesis,  change  from  indistinct  cha- 
racters to  distinct  ones,  was  repeated  in  the  evolution  of 
planets  and  satellites;  and  may  in  them  be  traced  much 
further.  A  gaseous  spheroid  is  less  definitely  limited  than 
a  fluid  spheroid,  since  it  is  subject  to  largei*  and  more  rapid 
undulations  of  surface,  and  to  much  greater  distortions  of 
general  form ;  and,  similarly,  a  liquid  spheroid,  covered  as  it 
must  be  with  waves  of  various  magnitudes,  is  less  definite 
than  a  solid  spheroid.  The  decrease  of  oblatencss  that  goes 
along  with  increase  of  integration,  brings  relative  definite- 
ness  of  other  elements.  A  planet  having  an  axis  inclined 
to  the  plane  of  its  orbit,  must,  while  its  form  is  very 
oblate,  have  its  plane  of  rotation  much  disturbed  by  the 
attraction  of  external  bodies;  whereas  its  approach  to  a 
spherical  form,  involving  a  smaller  processional  motion, 
involves  less  marked  variations  in  the  direction  of  its  axis. 

With  progressing  settlement  of  the  space-relations,  the 
force-relations  simultaneously  become  more  settled.  The 
exact  calculations  of  physical  astronomy,  show  us  how  defi- 
nite these  force-relations  now  are ;  while  their  original 
indefiniteness  is  implied  in  the  extreme  difficulty,  if  not 
impossibility,  of  subjecting  the  nebular  hypothesis  to  mathe- 
matical treatment. 

§  131.  From  that  primitive  m«lten  state  of  the  Earth 
inferable  from  geological  data — a  state  accounted  for  by  the 
nebular    hypothesis    but    inexplicable    on   any  other — the 


866  THE   LAW  OF  EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

transition  to  its  existing  state  lias  been  tlirough  stages  in 
wliicli  tlie  characters  became  more  determiaate.  Besides 
being  comparatively  unstable  in  surface  and  contour,  a  liquid 
Bpberoid  is  less  specific  tban  a  solid  spberoid  in  baving  no 
fixed  distribution  of  parts.  Currents  of  molten  matter, 
tliougli  kept  to  certain  general  circuits  by  tbe  conditions  of 
equilibrium,  cannot,  in  the  absence  of  solid  boundaries,  be 
precise  or  permanent  in  their  directions  :  all  parts  must  be 
in  motion  with  respect  to  other  parts.  But  a  superficial 
solidification,  even  though  partial,  is  manifestly  a  step 
towards  the  establishment  of  definite  relations  of  position. 
In  a  thin  crust,  however,  frequently  ruptured  by  disturbing 
forces,  and  moved  by  every  tidal  undulation,  fixity  of  re- 
lative position  can  be  but  temporary.  Only  as  the  crust 
thickens,  can  there  arise  distinct  ^nd  settled  geograpliical 
relations.  Observe,  too,  that  when,  on  a  surface 

that  has  cooled  to  the  requisite  degree,  there  begins  to  pre- 
cipitate the  w^ater  floating  above  as  vapour,  the  deposits 
cannot  maintain  any  definiteness  either  of  state  or  place. 
Falling  on  a  solid  envelope  not  thick  enough  to  preserve 
anything  beyond  slight  variations  of  level,  the  water  must 
form  shallow  pools  over  areas  sufficiently  cool  to  permit  con- 
densation ;  which  areas  must  pass  insensibly  into  others  that 
are  too  hot  for  this,  and  must  themselves  from  time  to  time 
be  so  raised  in  temperature  as  to  drive  off  the  water  lying 
on  them.  With  progressing  refrigeration,  however, — ^with 
a  growing  thickness  of  crust,  a  consequent  formation  of 
larger  elevations  and  depressions,  and  the  precipitation  of 
more  atmospheric  water,  there  comes  an  arrangement  of 
parts  that  is  comparatively  fixed  in  both  time  and  space ; 
and  the  definiteness  of  state  and  position  increases,  until 
there  results  such  a  distribution  of  continents  and  oceans 
as  we  now  see — ^a  distribution  that  is  not  only  topographi- 
cally precise,  but  also  in  its  cliff-marked  coast-lines  presents 
divisions  of  land  from  water  more  definite  than  could  have 
existed  when  all  the  uncovered  areas  were  low  islands  with 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  367 

filielving  beacHeSj  over  wMcli  the  tide  ebbed  and  flowed  to 
great  distances. 

Eespecting  tbe  cbaracteristics  classed  as  geological,  wo 
may  draw  parallel  inferences.  Wliile  the  Earth's  crust  was 
thin,  mountain- chains  were  impossibilities  :  there  could  not 
have  been  long  and  well-defined  axes  of  elevation,  with 
distinct  water-sheds  and  areas  of  drainage.  Moreover,  the 
denudation  of  small  islands  by  small  rivers,  and  by  tidal 
streams  both  feeble  and  narrow,  would  produce  no  clearly- 
marked  sedimentary  strata.  Confused  and  varying  masses 
of  detritus,  such  as  we  now  find  at  the  mouths  of  brooks, 
must  have  been  the  prevailing  formations.  And  these  could 
give  place  to  distinct  strata,  only  as  there  arose  continents 
and  oceans,  with  their  great  rivers,  long  coast-lines,  and 
wide-spreading  marine  currents. 

How  there  must  simultaneously  have  resulted  more  de- 
finite meteorological  characters,  need  not  be  pointed  out  in 
detail.  That  difierences  of  climates  and  seasons  grew 
relatively  decided  as  the  heat  of  the  Sun  became  distin- 
guishable from  the  proper  heat  of  the  Earth;  and  that 
the  production  of  more  specific  conditions  in  each  locahty 
was  aided  by  increasing  permanence  in  the  distribution  of 
lands  and  seas ;  are  conclusions  sufficiently  obvious. 

§  132.  Let  us  turn  now  to  the  evidence  famished  by 
organic  bodies.  In  place  of  deductive  illustrations  like  the 
foregoing,  we  shall  -here  find  numerous  illustrations  which 
have  been  inductively  established,  and  are  therefore  less 
open  to  criticism.  The  process  of  mammalian  development, 
for  example,  will  supply  us  with  numerous  proofs  ready- 
described  by  embryologists. 

The  first  change  which  the  ovum  of  a  mammal  undergoes 
after  continued  segmentation  has  reduced  its  ye^to  a  mul- 
berry-like mass,  is  the  appearance  of  a  greater  definiteness 
in  the  peripheral  cells  of  this  mass ;  each  of  which  acquires 
a  distinct  enveloping  membrane.     These  peripheral  cellsj 


368         THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

vaguely  distinguished  from  the  internal  ones  by  their 
minuter  sub-division  as  well  as  by  their  greater  complete- 
ness, coalesce  to  form  the  blastoderm  or  germinal  mem- 
brane. Presently,  one  portion  of  this  membrane  is  ren- 
dered unlike  the  rest  by  the  accumulation  of  cells  still 
more  sub-divided,  which,  together,  form  an  opaque 
roundish  spot.  This  area  germinativa,  as  it  is  called, 
shades  off  gradually  into  the  surrounding  parts  of  the 
blastoderm;  and  the  area  jpellucida,  subsequently  formed 
in  the  midst  of  it,  is  similarly  without  precise  margin. 
The  "  primitive  trace,^^  which  makes  its  appearance  in  the 
centre  of  the  area  pellucida,  and  is  the  rudiment  of  that 
vertebrate  axis  which  is  to  be  the  fundamental  character- 
istic of  the  mature  animal,  is  shown  by  its  name  to  be 
at  first  indefinite — a  mere  trace.  Beginning  as  a  shallow 
groove,  it  becomes  slowly  more  pronounced:  its  sides 
grow  higher;  their  summits  overlap,  and  at  last  unite; 
and  so  the  indefinite  groove  passes  into  a  definite  tube, 
forming  the  vertebral  canal.  In  this  vertebral  canal  the 
loading  divisions  of  the  brain  are  at  first  discernible  only 
as  slight  bulgings ;  while  the  vertebrae  commence  as 
indistinct  modifications  of  the  tissue  bounding  the  canal. 
Simultaneously,  the  outer  surface  of  the  blastoderm  has 
been  differentiating  from  the  inner  surface :  there  has 
arisen  a  division  into  the  serous  and  mucous  layers — a 
division  at  the  outset  indistinct,  and  traceable  jonly 
about  the  germinal  area,  but  which-  insensibly  spreads 
throughout  nearly  the  whole  germinal  membrane,  and 
becomes  definite.  From  the  mucous  layer,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  alimentary  canal  proceeds  as  that  of  the 
vertebral  canal  docs  from  the  serous  layer.  Originally  a 
simple  channel  along  the  under  surface  of  the  embryonic 
mass,  the  intestine  is  rendered  distinct  by  the  bending 
down,  on  each  side,  of  ridges  which  finally  join  to  form  a 
tube — ^the  permanent  absorbing  surface  is  by  degrees  cut  off 
from  that  temporary  absorbing  surface  with  which  it  was 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  3G9 

continuous  and  uniform.  And  in  an  analogous  manner 
the  entire  embryo,  whicli  at  first  lies  outspread  on  the 
yelk-sack,  gradually  rises  up  from  it,  and  by  the  infold- 
ing of  its  ventral  region,  becomes  a  separate  mass,  con- 
nected with  the  yelk-sack  only  by  a  narrow  duct. 

These  changes  through  which  the  general  structure  is 
marked  out  with  slowly-increasing  precision,  are  paralleled 
in  the  evolution  of  each  organ.  The  heart  begins  as  a 
mere  aggregation  of  cells,  of  which  the  inner  liquefy  to 
form  blood,  while  the  outer  are  transformed  into  the 
walls ;  and  when  thus  sketched  out,  the  heart  is  indefinite 
.not  only  as  being  unlined  by  limiting  membrane,  but  also 
as  being  little  more  than  a  dilatation  of  the  central  blood- 
vessel. By  and  by  the  receiving  portion  of  the  cavity 
becomes  distinct  from  the  propelling  portion.  Afterwards 
there  begins  to  grow  across  the  ventricle,  a  septum,  which 
is,  however,  some  time  before  it  shuts  off  the  two  halves 
from  each  other  ;  while  the  later-formed  septum  of  the 
auricle  remains  incomplete  during  the  whole  of  foetal 
life.  Again,   the   liver   commences  by  multipli- 

cation of  certain  cells  in  the  wall  of  the  intestine.  The 
thickening  produced  by  this  Inultiplication  "increases  so 
as  to  form  a  projection  upon  the  exterior  of  the  canal;" 
and  at  the  same  time  that  the  organ  grows  and  becomes 
distinct  from  the  intestine,  the  channels  running  through 
it  are  transformed  into  ducts  having  clearly-marked  walls. 
Similarly,  certain  cells  of  the  external  coat  of  the  alimentary 
canal  at  its  upper  portion,  accumulate  into  lumps  or  buds 
from  which  the  lungs  are  developed;  and  these,  in  their 
general  outlines  and  detailed  structure,  acquire  distinctness 
step  by  step. 

Changes  of  this  order  continue  long  after  birth;  and, 
in  the  human  being,  are  some  of  them  not  completed 
till  middle  life.  Daring  youth,  most  of  the  articular 
surfaces  of  the  bones  remain  rough  and  fissured — the  cal- 
careous deposit  ending  irregularly  in  the  surrounding  carti-' 


370         THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

lage.  But  between  puberty  and  tbe  age  of  tliirty,  these 
articular  surfaces  are  finisbed  off  into  smootb_,  hard^  sbarply- 
cut  ^'  epiphyses /'  Generally,  indeed,,  we  may  say  that  in- 
crease of  definiteness  continues  when  there  has  ceased 
to  be  any  appreciable  increase  of  heterogeneity.  And 
there  is  reason  to  think  that  those  modifications  which 
take  place  after  maturity,  bringing  about  old  age  and 
death,  are  modifications  of  this  nature;  since  they  cause 
rigidity  of  structure,  a  consequent  restriction  of  move- 
ment and  of  functional  pliability,  a  gradual  narrowing  of 
the  limits  within  which  the  vital  processes  go  on,  ending 
in  an  organic  adjustment  too  precise — too  narrow  in  its 
margin  of  possible  variation  to  permit  the  requisite  adapta- 
tion to  changes  of  external  conditions. 

§  133.  To  prove  that  the  Earth's  Flora  and  Fauna, 
regarded  either  as  wholes  or  in  their  separate  species,  have 
progressed  in  definiteness,  4s  no  more  possible  than  it  was 
to  prove  that  they  have  progressed  in  heterogeneity :  lack 
of  facts  being  an  obstacle  to  the  one  conclusion  as  to  the  other. 
If,  however,  we  allow  ourselves  to  reason  from  the  hypothesis, 
now  daily  rendered  more  probable,  that  every  species  up  to 
the  most  complex,  has  arisen  out  of  the  simplest  through 
.  the  accumulation  of  modifications  upon  modifications,  just 
as  every  individual  arises;  we  shall  see  that  there  must 
have  been  a  progress  from  the  indeterminate  to  the  deter- 
minate, both  in  the  particular  forms  and  in  the  groups  of 
forms. 
^  We  may  set  out  with  the  significant  fact  that  the  lowest 
organisms  (which  are  analogous  in  structure  to  the  germs 
of  all  higher  ones)  have  so  little  definiteness  of  character 
that  it  is  difiicult,  if  not  impossible,  to  decide  whether  they 
are  plants  or  animals.  Kespecting  sundry  of  them  there  are 
unsettled  disputes  between  zoologists  and  botanists ;  and  it 
is  proposed  to  group  them  into  a  separate  kingdom,  forming 
a  common  basis  to  the  animal  and  vegetal  kingdoms.     Note 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  371 

next  tliat  amoug  the  Protozoa,  extreme  indefiniteness  of  slia]io 
is  general.  In  sundry  shell-less  Ehizopods  the  form  is  so 
irregular  as  to  admit  of  no  description;  and  it  is  neither 
alike  in  any  two  individuals  nor  in  the  same  individual  at 
Buccessive  moments.  By  aggregation  of  such  creatures,  are 
produced,  among  other  indefinite  bodies,  the  Sponges — 
bodies  that  are  indefinite  in  size,  in  contour,  in  internal 
arrangement.  As  further  showing  how  relatively  indeter- 
minate are  the  simplest  organisms,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  their  structures  vary  greatly  with  surrounding  con- 
ditions :  so  much  so  that,  among  the  Protozoa  and  Pro- 
topJiijta,  many  forms  which  were  once  classed  as  distinct 
species,  and  even  as  distinct  genera,  are  found  to  be  merely 
varieties  of  one  species.  If  now  we  call  to  mind 

how  precise  in  their  attributes  are  the  highest  organisms- 
how  sharply  cut  their  outlines,  how  invariable  their  pro- 
portions, and  how  comparatively  constant  their  structures 
under  changed  conditions;  we  cannot  deny  that  greater 
definiteness  is  one  of  their  characteristics.  We  must  admit 
that  if  they  have  been  evolved  out  of  lower  organisms,  an 
increase  of  definiteness  has  been  an  accompaniment  of  their 
evolution. 

That,  in  course  of  time,  species  have  become  more  sharply 
marked  off  from  other  species,  genera  from  genera,  and 
orders  from  orders,  is  a  conclusion  not  admitting  of  a  more 
positive  establishment  than  the  foregoing;  and  must, 
indeed,  stand  or  fall  with  it.  If,  however,  species  and 
genera  and  orders  have  arisen  by  '^  natural  selection,^-'  then, 
as  Mr.  Darwin  shows,  there  must  have  been  a  tendency  to 
divergence,  causing  the  contrasts  between  groups  to 
become  greater.  Disappearance  of  intermediate  forms, 
less  fitted  for  special  spheres  of  existence  than  the  ex- 
treme forms  they  connected,  must  have  made  the 
differences  between  the  extreme  forms  decided;  and  so, 
from  indistinct  and  unstable  varieties,  must  slowly  have 
been  produced   distract   and   stable   species — an  inference 


372  THE   LAW  OF  EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

whicli  is  in  harmony  witli  what  we  know  respecting  races 
of  men  and  races  of  domestic  animals. 

§  134.  Tlie  successive  phases  through  which  societies 
pass,  very  obviously  display  the  progress  from  indeter- 
minate arrangement  to  determinate  arrangement.  A  wan- 
dering tribe  of  savages,  being  fixed  neither  in  its  locality 
nor  in  its  internal  distribution,  is  far  less  definite  in  the 
relative  positions  of  its  parts  than  a  nation.  In  such  a  tribe 
the  social  relations  are  similarly  confused  and  unsettled. 
Political  authority  is  neither  well  established  nor  precise. 
Distinctions  of  rank  are  neither  clearly  marked  nor  im- 
passable. And  save  in  the  difierent  occupations  of  men  and 
women,  there  are  no  complete  industrial  divisions.  Only 
in  tribes  of  considerable  size,  which  have  enslaved  other 
tribes,  is  the  economical  difierentiation  decided. 

Any  one  of  these  primitive  societies,  however,  that  evolves, 
becomes  step  by  step  more  specific.  Increasing  in  size, 
consequently  ceasing  to  be  so  nomadic,  and  restricted  in 
its  range  by  neighbouring  societies,  it  acquires,  after  pro- 
longed border  warfare,  a  settled  territorial  boundary.  Tho 
distinction  between  the  royal  race  and  the  people,  eventually 
amounts  in  the  popular  apprehension  to  a  difierence  of 
nature.  The  warrior-class  attains  a  perfect  separation  from 
classes  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  or  other 
occupations  regarded  as  servile.  And  there  arises  a 
priesthood  that  is  defined  in  its  rank,-  its  functions,  its 
privileges.  This  sharpness  of  definition,  growing 

both  greater  and  more  variously  exemplified  as  societies 
advance  to  maturity,  is  extremest  in  those  that  have 
reached  their  full  development  or  are  declining.  Of 
ancient  Egypt  we  read  that  its  social  divisions  were  precise 
and  its  customs  rigid.  Eecent  investigations  make  it  more 
than  ever  clear,  that  among  the  Assyrians  and  surrounding 
peoples,  not  only  were  the  laws  unalterable,  but  even  the 
minor  habits,  down  to  those  of  domestic  routine,  possessed 


THB  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  373 

a  »acTedness  wliicli  insured  their  permanence.  In  India  at 
the  present  day,  the  unchangeable  distinctions  of  caste, 
not  less  than  the  constancy  in  modes  of  dress,  industrial 
processes,  and  religious  observances,  show  us  how  fixed  are 
the  arrangements  where  the  antiquity  is  great.  Nor  does 
China,  with  its  long-settled  pohtical  organization,  its  elabo- 
rate and  precise  conventions,  and  its  unprogressive  lite- 
rature, fail  to  exemplify  the  same  truth. 

The  successive  phases  of  our  own  and  adjacent  societies, 
furnish  facts  somewhat  different  in  kind  but  similar  in  mean- 
ing. Originally,  monarchical  authority  was  more  baronial, 
and  baronial  authority  more  monarchical,  than  afterwards. 
Between  modem  priests  and  the  priests  of  old  times,  who 
while  officially  teachers  of  religion  were  also  warriors, 
judges,  architects,  there  is  a  marked  difference  in  defi- 
niteness  of  function.  And  among  the  people  engaged  in 
productive  occupations,  the  hke  contrasts  would  be  found 
to  hold:  the  industrial  class  has  become  more  distinct 
from  the  military;  and  its  various  divisions  from  one 
another.  A  history  of  our  constitution,  reminding 

us  how  the  powers  of  K4ng,  Lords,  and  Commons,  have 
been  gradually  settled,  would  clearly  exhibit  analogous 
changes.  Countless  facts  bearing  the  hke  construction, 
would  meet  us  were  we  to  trace  the  development  of  legis- 
lation; in  the  successive  stages  of  which,  wo  should  find 
statutes  gradually  rendered  more  specific  in  their  appli- 
cations to  particular  cases.  Even  now  we  see  that  each 
new  law,  beginning  as  a  vague  proposition,  is,  in  the  course 
of  enactment,  elaborated  into  specific  clauses ;  and  further 
that  only  after  its  interpretation  has  been  established  by 
judges^  decisions  in  courts  of  justice,  does  it  reach  its  final 
definiteness.  '  '  From  the  annals  of  minor  institu- 

tions Hke  evidence  may  be  gathered.  Keligious,  charitable, 
literary,  and  all  other  societies,  starting  with  ends  and 
methods  roughly  sketched  out  and  easily  modifiable,  show  us 
how,  by  the  accumulation  of  rules  and  precedents,  the  pur- 


374  THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

poses  become  more  distinct  and  tlie  modes  of  action  more 
restricted;  until  at  last  decay  follows  a  fixity  whicli  admits 
of  no  adaptation  to  new  conditions.  Should  it  be  objected 
that  among  civilized  nations  there  are  examples  of  de- 
creasing definitenesSj  (instance  the  breaking  down  of  limits 
between  ranks^)  the  reply  is^  that  such  apparent  exceptions 
are  the  accompaniments  of  a  social  metamorphosis — a 
change  from  the  military  or  predatory  type  of  social 
fitructure^  to  the  industrial  Or  mercantile  type^  during  which 
the  old  lines  of  organization  are  disappearing  and  the  new 
ones  becoming  more  marked. 

§  135.  All  organized  results  of  social  action — all  super- 
organic  structures^  pass  through  parallel  phases.  Being,  as 
they  are,  objective  products  of  subjective  processes,  they 
must  display  corresponding  changes ;  and  that  they  do  this, 
the  cases  of  Language,  of  Science,  of  Art,  clearly  prove. 

Strike  out  from  our  sentences  everything  but  nouns  and 
verbs,  and  there  stands  displayed  the  vagueness  charac- 
terizing undeveloped  tongues.  When  we  note  how  each 
inflection  of  a  verb,  or  addition  by  which  the  case  of  a  noun' 
is  marked,  serves  to  limit  the  conditions  of  action  or  of  ex- 
istence, we  see  that  these  constituents  of  speech  enable  men 
to  communicate  their  thoughts  more  precisely.  That  the 
application  of  an  adjective  to  a  noun  or  an  adverb  to  a  verb, 
narrows  the  class  of  things  or  changes  indicated,  implies 
that  the  additional  word  serves  to  make  the  proposition 
more  distinct.     And  similarly  with  other  parts  of  speech. 

The  like  effect  results  from  the  multiplication  of  words  of 
each  order.  When  the  names  for  objects,  and  acts,  and 
qualities,  are  but  few,  the  range  of  each  is  proportionately 
wide,  and  its  meaning  therefore  unspccific.  The  similes  and 
metaphors  so  much  used  by  aboriginal  races,  indirectly 
and  imperfectly  suggest  ideas,  which  they  cannot  express 
directly  and  perfectly  from  lack  of  words.  Or  to  take  a 
case  from  ordinary  life,  if  we  compare  the  speech  of  tho 


THE   LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.  375 

peasant,  who,  out  of  Ids  limited  vocabulary,  can  describe 
the  coutents  of  the  bottle  lie  carries,  only  as  "  doctor's- 
stufif  wliicli  lie  has  got  for  his  '^  sick "  wife,  with  the 
speech  of  the  physician,  who  tells  those  educated  liko 
himself  the  particular  composition  of  the  medicine,  and  the 
particular  disorder  for  which  he  has  prescribed  it ;  we  have 
vividly  brought  home  to  us,  the  precision  which  language 
gains  by  the  multiplication  of  terms. 

Again,  in  the  course  of  its  evolution,  each  tongue  acquires 
a  further  accuracy  through  processes  which  fix  the  meaning 
of  each  word.  Intellectual  intercourse  slowly  diminishes 
laxity  of  expression.  By  and  by  dictionaries  give  deJBni- 
tions.  And  eventually,  among  the  most  cultivated,  inde- 
finiteness  is  not  tolerated,  either  in  the  terms  used  or  in  their 
grammatical  combinations. 

Once  more,  languages  considered  as  wholes,  become 
gradually  more  sharply  marked  off  from  one  another,  and 
from  their  common  parent :  as  witness  in  early  times  the 
divergence  from  the  same  root  of  two  languages  so  unlike 
as  Greek  and  Latin,  and  in  later  times  the  development  of 
thi'ee  Latin  dialects  into  Italian,  French,  and  Spanish. 

§  136.  In  his  "  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences,'"*  Dr. 
Whewell  says  that  the  Greeks  failed  in  physical  philosophy 
because  their  "  ideas  were  not  distinct,  and  appropriate  to 
the  facts."  I  do  not  quote  this  remark  for  its  luminous- 
ness  ;  since  it  would  be  equally  proper  to  ascribe  the 
indistinctness  and  inappropriateness  of  their  ideas  to  the 
imperfection  of  their  physical  philosophy ;  but  I  quote  it 
because  it  serves  as  good  evidence  of  the  indefiniteness  of 
primitive  science.  The  same  work  and  its  fellow  on  "  The 
Philosophy  of  the  Inductive  Sciences,''  supply  other  evi- 
dences equally  good,  because  equally  independent  of  any 
euch  hypothesis  as  is  here  to  be  estabhshed.  Kespecting 
mathematics,  we  have  the  fact  that  geometrical  theorems 
grew  out  of  empirical  methods  ;  and  that  these  theorems,  at 


376  THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

first  isolated,  did  not  acquire  the  clearness  wliicli  complete 
demonstration  gives,  until  they  were  arranged  by  Euclid 
into  a  series  of  dependent  propositions.  At  a  later  period, 
th.0  same  general  truth  was  exemplified  in  the  progress 
from  the  '^  method  of  exhaustions "  and  the  "  method  of 
,  indivisibles "  to  the  ^'  method  of  limits ; "  which  is  the 
central  idea  of  the  infinitesimal  calculus.  In  early 

mechanics,  too,  may  be  traced  a  dim  perception  that  action 
and  re-action  are  equal  and  opposite ;  though,  for  ages  after, 
this  truth  remained  unformulated.  And  similarly,  the 
property  of  inertia,  though  not  distinctly  comprehended 
until  Kepler  lived,  was  vaguely  recognized  long  previously. 
"  The  conception  of  statical  force,^'  ^'  was  never  presented 
in  a  distinct  form  till  the  works  of  Archimedes  appeared; '^ 
and  "  the  conception  of  accelerating  force  was  confused,  in 
the  mind  of  Kepler  and  his  contemporaries,  and  did  not 
become  clear  enough  for  purposes  of  sound  scientific  reason- 
ing before  the  succeeding  century.^'  To  which  specific  asser- 
tions may  be  added  the  general  remark,  that  "  terms  which 
originally,  and  before  the  laws  of  motion  were  fully  known, 
were  used  in  a  very  vague  and  fluctuating  sense,  were 
afterwards  limited  and  rendered  precise.^'  Wlieu 

we  turn  from  abstract  scientific  conceptions  to  the  con- 
crete previsions  of  science,  of  which  astronomy  furnishes 
numerous  examples,  a  like  contrast  is  visible.  The  times 
at  which  celestial  phenomena  will  occur,  have  been  predicted 
with  ever-increasing  accuracy.  Errors  once  amounting  to 
days  are  now  diminished  to  seconds.  The  correspondence 
between  the  real  and  supposed  forms  of  orbits,  has  been 
gradually  rendered  more  precise.  Originally  thought  circular, 
then  epicyclical,  then  elliptical,  orbits  are  now  ascertained  to 
be  curves  which  always  deviate  from  perfect  ellipses,  and 
are  ever  undergoing  changes. 

But  the  general  advance  of  Science  in  definiteness,  is  best 
shown  by  the  contrast  between  its  qualitative  stage,  and  its 
quantitative  stage.     At  first  the  facts  ascertained  were,  that 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED.         0/7 

between  such,  and  sucli  plienomcna  some  connexion  existed 
—that  tlie  appearances  a  and  h  always  occurred  together  op 
in  succession  j  but  it  was  known  neither  what  was  the 
nature  of  the  relation  between  a  and  h,  nor  how  much  of  a 
accompanied  so  much  of  h.  The  development  of  Science 
has  in  part  been  the  reduction  of  these  vague  connexions  to 
distinct  ones.  Most  relations  have  been  classed  as  me- 
chanical, chemical,  thermal,  electric,  magnetic,  &c. ;  and  wo 
have  learnt  to  infer  the  amounts  of  the  antecedents  and  con- 
sequents from  each  other  with  exactness.  Of 
illustrations,  some  furnished  by  physics  have  been  given; 
and  from  other  sciences  plenty  may  be  added.  We  have 
positively  ascertained  the  constituents  of  numerous  com  ■ 
pounds  which  our  ancestors  could  not  analyze,  and  of  a  far 
greater  number  which  they  never  even  saw ;  and  the  com- 
bining equivalents  of  these  elements  arc  accurately  calcu- 
lated. Physiology  shows  advance  from  qualitative  to  quan- 
titative prevision  in  the  weighing  and  measuring  of  organic 
products,  and  of  the  materials  consumed;  as  well  as  in 
measurement  of  functions  by  the  spirometer  and  the  sphyg- 
mograph.  By  Pathology  it  is  displayed  in  the  use  of  tho 
statistical  method  of  determining  the  sources  of  diseases, 
and  the  eflfects  of  treatment.  In  Botany  and  Zoology,  tho 
numerical  comparisons  of  Floras  and  Faunas,  leading  to 
specific  conclusions  respecting  their  sources  and  distribu- 
tions, illustrate  it.  And  in  Sociology,  questionable  as  are 
the  conclusions  usually  drawn  from  the  classified  sum-totals 
of  the  census,  from  Board-of-Trade  tables,  and  from 
criminal  returns,  it  must  bo  admitted  that  these  imply  a 
progress  towards  more  accurate  conceptions  of  social 
phenomena. 

That  an  essential  characteristic  of  advancing  Science  is 
increase  in  definiteness,  appears  indeed  almost  a  truism, 
when  wo  remember  that  Science  may  be  described  as 
definite  knowledge,  in  contradistinction  to  that  indefiuito 
knowledge  possessed  by  tho  uncultured.      And  if,  as  we 


878         THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONTINUED. 

cannot  question,,  Science  has,  in  the  course  of  agss,  been 
evolved  out  of  this  indefinite  knowledge  of  the  uncultured ; 
then,  the  gradual  acquirement  of  that  great  definiteness 
which  now  distinguishes  it,  must  have  been  a  leading  trait 
in  its  evolution. 

§  137.  The  Arts,  industrial  and  aesthetic,  supply  illustra- 
tions perhaps  still  more  striking.  Flint  implements  of  the 
kind  recently  found  in  certain  of  the  later  geologic  deposits, 
show  the  extreme  want  of  precision  in  men's  first  handi- 
works. Though  a  great  advance  on  these  is  seen  in  the 
tools  and  weapons  of  existing  savage  tribes,  yet  an  inexact- 
ness in  forms  and  fittings  distinguishes  such  tools  and 
weapons  from  those  of  civilized  races.  In  a  smaller  degree, 
the  productions  of  the  less-advanced  nations  are  character- 
ized by  like  defects.  A  Chinese  junk,  with  all  its  con- 
tained furniture  and  appliances,  nowhere  presents  a  line 
that  is  quite  straight,  a  uniform  curve,  or  a  true  sur- 
face. Nor  do  the  utensils  and  machines  of  our 
ancestors  fail  to  exhibit  a  similar  inferiority  to  our  own. 
An  antique  chair,  an  old  fireplace,  a  lock  of  the  last  century, 
or  almost  any  article  of  household  use  that  has  been  pre- 
served for  a  few  generations,  proves  by  contrast  how  greatly 
the  industrial  products  of  our  time  excel  those  of  the  past  in 
their  accuracy.  Since  planing  machines  have  been  invented^ 
it  has  become  possible  to  produce  absolutely  straight  lines, 
and  surfaces  so  truly  level  as  to  be  air-tight  when  appHed  to 
each  other.  While  in  the  dividing-engine  of  Troughton,  in 
the  micrometer  of  Whitworth,  and  in  microscopes  that  show 
fifty  thousand  divisions  to  the  inch,  we  have  an  exactness 
as  far  exceeding  that  reached  in  the  works  of  our  great- 
grandfathers, as  theirs  exceeded  that  of  the  aboriginal 
celt-makers. 

In  the  Fine  Arts  there  has  been  a  parallel  progress. 
From  the  rudely-carved  and  painted  idols  of  savages, 
through  the  early  sculptures  characterized  by  limbs  with- 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONTINUED.  379 

out  muscular  detail,  wooden-looking  drapery,  and  faces 
devoid  of  individuality,  up  to  tlie  later  statues  of  tlie  Greeks 
or  some  of  those  now  produced,  the  increased  accuracy  of 
representation  is  conspicuous.  Compare  the  mural  paint- 
ings of  the  Egyptians  with  the  paintings  of  media3val 
Europe,  or  these  with  modern  paintings,  and  the  more 
precise  rendering  of  the  appearances  of  objects  is  mani- 
fest. It  is  the  same  with  fiction  and  the  drama. 
In  the  marvellous  tales  current  among  Eastern  nations,  in 
the  romantic  legends  of  feudal  Europe,  as  well  as  in  the 
mystery-plays  and  those  immediately  succeeding  them,  we 
see  great  want  of  correspondence  to  the  realities  of  life  ; 
alike  in  the  predominance  of  supernatural  events,  in  the 
extremely  improbable  coincidences,  and  in  the  vaguely-, 
indicated  personages.  Along  with  social  advance,  there 
has  been  a  progressive  diminution  of  unnaturalness — an 
approach  to  truth  of  representation.  And  now,  novels  and 
plays  are  applauded  in  proportion  to  the  fidelity  with  which 
they  exhibit  individual  characters ;  improbabilities,  Hke  the 
impossibilities  which  preceded  them,  are  disallowed;  and 
there  is  even  an  incipient  abandonment  of  those  elaborate 
plots  which  life  rarely  if  ever  furnishes. 

§  138.  It  would  be  easy  to  accumulate  evidences  of  other 
kinds.  The  progress  from  myths  and  legends,  extreme 
in  their  misrepresentations,  to  a  history  that  has  slowly 
become,  and  is  still  becoming,  more  accurate;  the  esta- 
blishment of  settled  systematic  methods  of  doing  things, 
instead  of  the  indeterminate  ways  at  first  pursued — these 
might  be  enlarged  upon  in  further  exemplification  of  the 
general  law.  But  the  basis  of  induction  is  already  wide 
enough.  Proof  that  all  Evolution  is  from  the  indefinite  to 
the  definite,  we  find  to  be  not  less  abundant  than  proof 
that  all  Evolution  is  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  hete- 
rogeneous. 

It  should,  however,  be  added  that  this  advance  in  definite- 


380  THE   LAW  OF  EVOLUTION   CONTINUED. 

ness  is  not  a  primary  but  a  secondary  phenomenon — ^is  a 
result  incidental  on  other  clianges.  Tlie  transformation  of 
a  whole  that  was  originally  diffused  and  uniform  into  a  con- 
centrated combination  of  multiform  parts^  implies  progres- 
sive separation  both  of  the  whole  from  its  environment  and 
of  the  parts  from  one  another.  "While  this  is  going  on  there 
must  be  indistinctness.  Only  as  the  whole  gains  density, 
does  it  become  sharply  marked  off  from  the  space  or  matter 
lying  outside  of  it;  and  only  as  each  separated  division 
draws  into  its  mass  those  peripheral  portions  which  are  at 
first  imperfectly  disunited  from  the  peripheral  portions  of 
neighbouring  divisions^  can  it  acquire  anything  like  a  precise 
outline.  That  is  to  say,  the  increasing  definiteness  is  a  conco- 
mitant of  the  increasing  consolidation,  general  and  local. 
While  the  secondary  re-distributions  are  ever  adding  to  the 
heterogeneity,  the  primary  re- distribution,  while  augmenting 
the  integration,  is  incidentally  giving  distinctness  to  tliG  in- 
creasingly-unlike  parts  as  well  as  to  the  aggregate  of  them. 
But  though  this  universal  trait  of  Evolution  is  a  necessary 
accompaniment  of  the  traits  set  forth  in  preceding  chapters, 
it  is  not  expressed  in  the  words  used  to  describe  them.  It 
is  therefore  needful  further  to  modify  our  formula.  The 
more  specific  idea  of  Evolution  now  reached  is — a  change 
from  an  indefinite,  incoherent  homogeneity,  to  a  definite 
coherent  heterogeneity,  accompanying  the  dissipation  of 
motion  and  integration  of  matter. 


CHAPTER  XYII. 

THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED. 

'  §  139.  TliG  conception  of  Evolution  elaborated  in  the 
foregoing  chapters,  is  still  incomplete.  True  thougli  it  is 
it  is  not  tlie  wliole  truth.  The  transformations  which  all 
things  undergo  during  the  ascending  phases  of  their  exist- 
ence, we  have  contemplated  under  three  aspects ;  and  by 
uniting  these  three  aspects  as  simultaneously  presented,  wo 
have  formed  an  approximate  idea  of  the  transformations. 
But  there  are  concomitant  changes  about  which  nothing  has 
yet  been  said ;  and  which,  though  less  conspicuous,  are  no 
less  essential. 

For  thus  far  we  have  attended  only  to  the  re-distribution 
of  Matter,  neglecting  the  accompanying  re-distribution  of 
Motion.  Distinct  or  tacit  reference  has,  indeed,  repeatedly 
been  made  to  the  dissipation  of  Motion,  that  goes  on  along 
with  the  concentration  of  Matter ;  and  were  all  Evolution 
absolutely  simple,  the  total  fact  would  be  contained  in  tho 
proposition  that  as  Motion  dissipates  Matter  concentrates. 
But  while  wo  have  recognized  the  ultimate  re-distribu- 
tion of  the  Motion,  we  have  passed  over  its  proximate  re-dis- 
tribution. Thouo^h  somethinof  has  from  time  to  time  been 
said  about  the  escaping  motion,  nothing  has  been  said 
about  the  motion  that  docs  not  escape.  In  proportion  as 
Evolution  becomes  compound — in  proportion  as  an  aggre- 
gate?  retains,  for  a  considerable  time,  such   a  quantity  of 


382  THE    LAW   OF    EVOLUTION    CONCLUDED. 

motion  as  permits  secondary  re-distributions  of  its  com- 
ponent matter_,  there  necessarily  arise  secondary  re-distri- 
butions of  its  retained  motion.  As  fast  as  tlie  parts 
are  transformed,  there  goes  on  a  transformation  of  the 
sensible  or  insensible  motion  possessed  by  the  parts.  Tho 
parts  cannot  become  progressively  integrated,  either  indivi- 
dually or  as  a  combination,  without  their  motions,  indivi- 
dual or  combined,  becoming  more  integrated.  There  cannot 
arise  among  the  parts  heterogeneities  of  size,  of  form,  of 
quality,  without  there  also  arising  heterogeneities  in  the 
amounts  and  directions  of  their  motions,  or  the  motions  of 
their  molecules.  And  increasing  definiteness  of  the  parts 
implies  increasing  definiteness  of  their  motions.  In  shorj:, 
the  rhythmical  actions  going  on  in  each  aggregate,  must 
difierentiate  and  integrate  at  the  same  time  that  the  struc- 
ture does  so. 

The  general  theory  of  this  re-distribution  of  the  retained 
motion,  must  here  be  briefly  slated.  Properly  to  supplement 
our  conception  of  Evolution  under  its  material  aspect  by  a 
conception  of  Evolution  under  its  dynamical  aspect,  we  have 
to  recognize  the  source  of  the  integrated  motions  that  arise, 
and  to  see  how  their  increased  multiformity  and  definiteness 
are  necessitated.  If   Evolution  is   a  passage  of 

matter  from  a  difiused  to  an  aggregated  state — if  while  the 
dispersed  units  are  losing  part  of  the  insensible  motion 
which  kept  them  dispersed,  there  arise  among  coherent 
masses  of  them,  any  sensible  motions  with  respect  to  one 
another;  then  this  sensible  motion  must  previously  have 
existed  in  the  form  of  insensible  motion  among  the  units. 
If  concrete  matter  arises  by  the  aggregation  of  difiused 
matter,  then  concrete  motion  arises  by  the  aggregation  of 
difiused  motion.  That  which  comes  into  existence  as  the 
movement  of  masses,  implies  the  cessation  of  an  equivalent 
molecular  movement.  While  we  must  leave  in  the  shape  of 
hypothesis  the  belief  that  the  celestial  motions  have  thus 
originated^  we  may  see,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  this  is  the 


TUE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED.         383 

genesis  of  all  sensible  motions  on  the  Earth's  surface.  As 
before  shown  (§69),  the  denudation  of  lands  and  deposit 
of  new  strata,  are  effected  by  water  in  the  course  of  its  de- 
scent to  the  sea,  or  during  the  arrest  of  those  undulations 
produced  on  it  by  winds  ;  and,  as  before  shown,  the  eleva- 
tion of  water  to  the  height  whence  it  fell,  is  due  to  solar 
heat,  as  is  also  the  genesis  of  those  aerial  currents  which 
drift  it  about  when  evaporated  and  agitate  its  surface  when 
condensed.  .  That  is  to  say,  the  molecular  motion  of  tho 
etherial  medium  is  transformed  into  the  motion  of  gases, 
thence  into  the  motion  of  liquids,  and  thence  iuto  the  mo- 
tion of  solids — stages  in  each  of  which  a  certain  amount 
of  molecular  motion  is  lost  and  an  equivalent  motion  of 
masses  gained.  It  is  the  same  with  organic  movements. 
Certain  rays  issuing  from  the  Sun,  enable  the  plant  to 
reduce  special  elements  existing  in  gaseous  combination 
around  it,  to  a  solid  form — enable  the  plant,  that  is,  to 
grow  and  carry  on  its  functional  changes.  And  since 
growth,  equally  with  circulation  of  sap,  is  a  mode  of  sen- 
sible motion,  while  those  rays  which  have  been  expended 
in  generating  it  consist  of  insensible  motions,  we  have 
here,  too,  a  transformation  of  the  kind  alleged.  Animals, 
derived  as  their  forces  are,  directly  or  indirectly,  from 
plants,  carry  this  transformation  a  step  further.  Tho 
automatic  movements  of  the  viscera.,  together  with  tho 
voluntary  movements  of  the  limbs  and  body  at  large,  arise 
at  the  expense  .of  certain  molecular  movements  through- 
out the  nervous  and  muscular  tissues ;  and  these  originally 
arose  at  the  expense  of  certain  other  molecular  move- 
ments propagated  by  the  Sun  to  the  Earth ;  so  that  both 
the  structural  and  functional  motions  which  organic  Evo- 
lution displays,  are  motions  of  aggregates  generated  by 
the  arrested  motions  of  units.  Even  with  the  aggregates  of 
these  aggregates  the  same  rule  holds.  For  among  associated 
men,  the  progress  is  ever  towards  a  merging  of  individual 
actions  in  tho  actions  of  corporate  bodies.     WTiile,  then, 


384         THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED, 

daring  Evolution^  tlie  escaping  motion  becomes,  by  perpe- 
tually widening  dispersion,  more  disintegrated,  the  motion 
tliat  is  for  a  time  retained,  becomes  more  integrated ;  and 
so,  considered  dynamically,  Evolution  is  a  decrease  in  tlio 
relative  movements  of  parts  and  an  increase  in  the  relative 
movements  of  wholes — ^using  the  words  parts  and  wholes 
in  their  most  general  senses.  The  advance  is  from  the 
motions  of  simple  molecules  to  the  motions  of  compound 
molecules;  from  molecular  motions  to  tbe  motions  of  masses; 
and  from  th.0  motions  of  smaller  masses  to  the  motions  of 
larger  masses.  The  accompanying  change  towards 

greater  multiformity  among  the  retained  motions,  takss 
place  under  the  form  of  an  increased  variety  of  rhythms. 
We  lijive  already  seen  that  all  motion  is  rhythmical,  from 
the  infinitesimal  vibrations  of  infinitesimal  molecules,  up 
to  those  vast  oscillations  between  perihelion  and  aphelion 
performed  by  vast  celestial  bodies.  And  as  th.e  contrast 
between  these  extreme  cases  suggests,  a  multiplication  of 
rhythms  must  accompany  a  multiplication  in  the  degrees 
and  modes  of  aggregation,  and  in  tlie  relations  of  the  aggre- 
gated masses  to  incident  forces.  The  degree  or  mode  of 
aggregation  will  not,  indeed,  affect  the  rate  or  extent  of 
rhythm  where  the  incident  force  increases  as  tbe  aggregate 
increases,  which,  is  the  case  witb  gravitation  :  here  the  only 
cause  of  variation  in  rhythm,  is  difference  of  relation  to  the 
incident  forces;  as  we  see  in  a  pendulum,  which,  thougli 
unaffected  in  its  movements  by  a  change  ^n  the  weight  of 
the  bob,  alters  its  rate  of  oscillation  when  taken  to  the 
equator.  But  in  all  cases  where  the  incident  forces  do  not 
vary  as  the  masses,  every  new  order  of  aggregation  initiates 
a  new  order  of  rhythm  :  witness  the  conclusion  drawn  from 
the  recent  researches  into  radiant  beat  and  light,  that  the 
molecules  of  different  gases  have  different  rates  of  undulation. 
So  that  increased  multiformity  in  the  arrangement  of 
matter,  necessarily  generates  increased  multiformity  of 
rhythm ;  both  through  increased  variety'  in  the  sizes  and 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED.         385 

forms  of  aggregates,  and  througli  increased  variety  in  their 
relations  to  tlie  forces  wMcli  move  them.  That 

these  motions  as  they  become  more  integrated  and  moro 
heterogeneous,  must  become  more  definite,  is  a  proposition 
that  need  not  detain  us.  In  proportion  as  any  part  of  an 
evolving  whole  segregates  and  consolidates,  and  in  so  doing 
loses  the  relative  mobility  of  its  components,  its  aggregate 
motion  must  obviously  acquire  distinctness. 

Here,  then,  to  complete  our  conception  of  Evolution,  wo 
have  to  contemplate  throughout  the  Cosmos,  these  metamor- 
morphoses  of  retained  motion  that  accompany  the  metamor- 
phoses of  component  matter.  We  may  do  this  with  compa- 
rative brevity  :  the  reader  having  now  become  so  far  familiar 
with  the  mode  of  looking  at  the  facts,  that  less  illustration 
will  suffice.  To  save  space,  it  will  be  convenient  to  deal 
with  the  several  aspects  of  the  metamorphoses  at  the 
same  time. 

§  140.  Dispersed  matter  moving,  as  we  see  it  in  a  spiral 
nebula,  towards  the  common  centre  of  gravity,  from  all 
points  at  all  distances  with  all  degrees  of  indirectness,  must 
carry  into  the  nebulous  mass  eventually  formed,  innumerable 
momenta  contrasted  in  their  amounts  and  directions.  As 
the  integration  progresses,  such  parts  of  these  momenta  as 
conflict  are  mutually  neutralized,  and  dissipated  as  heat.  Th)^ 
out-standing  rotatory  motion,  at  first  having  unhke  angular 
velocities  at  the  periphery  and  at  various  distances  from  tho 
centre,  has  its  differences  of  angular  velocity  gradually  re- 
duced ;  advancing  towards  a  final  state,  now  nearly  reached 
by  the  Sun,  in  which  the  angular  velocity  of  the  whole  mass 
is  the  same — in  which  the  motion  is  integrated.  So, 

too,  with  each  planet  and  satellite.  Progress  from  the 
motion  of  a  nebulous  ring,  incoherent  and  admitting  of  mucL 
relative  motion  within  its  mass,  to  the  motion  of  a  dense 
Rpheroid,  is  progress  to  a  motion  that  is  completely  inte- 
jn^tcd.  The  rotation,  and  the  translation  through  space, 
18 


386         THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED. 

severally  become  one   and  indivisible.  Meanwliile, 

tliere  goes  on  tliat  further  integration  by  which  the  motions 
of  all  the  parts  of  the  Solar  System  are  rendered  mutually 
dc^pendcnt.  Locally  in  each  planet  and  its  satellites,  and 
generally  in  the  Sun  and  the  planets,  we  have  a  system  of 
simple  and  compound  rhythms,  with  periodic  and  secular 
variations,  forming  together  an  integrated  set  of  movements. 
The  matter  which^  in  its  original  diffused  state,  had 
motions  that  were  confused,  indeterminate,  or  without 
sharply-marked  distinctions,  has,  during  the  evolution  of 
the  Solar  System,  acquired  definitely  heterogeneous  motions. 
The  periods  of  revolution  of  all  the  planets  and  satellites 
are  unlike ;  as  are  also  their  times  of  rotation.  Out  of 
these  definitely  heterogeneous  motions  of  a  simple  kind, 
arise  others  that  are  complex,  but  still  definite; — as  those 
produced  by  the  revolutions  of  satellites  compounded  with 
the  revolutions  of  their  primaries ;  as  those  of  which  pre- 
cession is  the  result;  and  as  those  which  are  known  as 
perturbations.  Each  additional  complexity  of  structure  has 
caused  additional  complexity  of  movements ;  but  still,  a  de- 
finite complexity,  as  is  shown  by  having  calculable  results. 

§  141.  While  the  Earth's  surface  was  molten,  the  currents 
in  the  voluminous  atmosphere  surrounding  it,  mainly  of 
ascending  heated  gases  and  of  descending  precipitated 
liquids,  must  have  been  local,  numerous,  indefinite,  and  but 
little  distinguished  from  one  another.  But  as  fast  as  the 
surface  cooled,  and  solar  radiation  began  to  cause  appre- 
ciable difierences  of  temperature  between  the  equatorial 
and  polar  regions,  a  decided  atmospheric  circulation  from 
poles  to  ejj[uator  and  from  equator  to  poles,  must  have  slowly 
established  itself :  the  vast  moving  masses  of  air  becoming, 
at  last,  trade-winds  and  other  such  permanent  definite 
currents.  These  integrated  motions,  once  com- 

paratively homogeneous,  were  rendered  heterogeneous  as 
great  islands  and  continents  arose,  to  complicate  them  by 


THE   LAW   OP   EVOLUTION   CONCLUDED,  387 

• 

])enoclic  winds,  caused  by  the  varied  Keating  of  wide  tracts 
of  land  at  different  seasons.  Rhytliniical  motions  of  a  con- 
stant and  simple  kind,  were,  by  increasing  multiformity  of 
tlie  Eartli^s  surface,  differentiated  into  an  involved  com- 
bination of  constant  and  recurrent  rhythmical  motions,- 
joined  with  smaller  motions  that  are  irregular. 

Parallel  changes  must  have  taken  place  in  the  motions  of 
water.  On  a  thin  crust,  admitting  of  but  small  elevations 
and  depressions,  and  therefore  of  but  small  lakes  and  seas, 
none  beyond  small  local  circulations  were  possible.  But 
along  with  the  formation  of  continents  and  oceans,  came  the 
vast  movements  of  water  from  warm  latitudes  to  cold  and 
from  cold  to  warm — movements  increasing  in  amount,  in 
definiteness,  and  in  variety  of  distribution,^»,s  the  fea- 
tures of  the  Earth's  surface  became  larger  and  more  con- 
trasted. The  like  holds  with  drainage  waters.  The 
tricklings  of  insignificant  streams  over  narrow  pieces  of  land, 
were  once  the  only  motions  of  such  waters;  but  as  fast  as  wide 
areas  came  into  existence,  the  motions  of  many  tributaries 
became  massed  into  the  motions  of  great  rivers;  and  instead 
of  motions  very  much  alike,  there  arose  motions  consider- 
ably varied. 

Nor  can  we  well  do«bt  that  the  movements  in  the 
Earth's  crust  itself,  have  presented  an  analogous  progress. 
Small,  numerous,  local,  and  very  much  like  one  another, 
while  the  crust  was  thin,  the  elevations  and  subsidences 
must,  as  the  crust  thickened,  have  extended  over  larger 
areas,  must  have  continued  for  longer  eras  in  the  same  . 
directions,  and  must  have  been  made  more  unlike  in  diffe- 
rent regions  by  local  differences  of  structure  in  the  crust. 

§  142.  In  organisms  the  advance  towards  a  more  inte- 
grated, heterogeneous,  and  definite  distribution  of  the  re- 
tained motion,  which  accompanies  the  advance  towards  a 
more  integrated,  heterogeneous,  and  definite  distribution  of 
the  component  matter,  is  mainly  what  we  understand  as  the* 


888         THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED, 

develo|)mcnt  of  functioriS.  All  active  functions  are  eitlier 
sensible  movements,  as  tliose  produced  by  contractile 
organs;  or  such  insensible  movements  as  tliose  propagated 
througb  the  nerves;  or  sucli  insensible  movements  as  those 
•by  which,  in  secreting  organs,  molecular  re-arrangements 
are  effected,  and  new  combinations  of  matter  produced. 
And  what  we  have  here  to  observe  is,  that  during  evolution, 
functions,  like  structures,  become  more  consolidated  in- 
dividually, as  well  as  more  combined  with  one  another,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  become  more  multiform  and  more 
distinct. 

The  nutritive  juices  in  animals  of  low  types,  move  hither 
and  thither  through  the  tissues  quite  irregularly,  as  local 
strains  and  pressures  determine :  in  the  absence  of  a  dis- 
tinguishable blood  and  a  developed  vascular  system,  there 
is  no  definite  circulation.  But  along  with  the  structural 
evolution  which  establishes  a  finished  apparatus  for  dis- 
tributing blood,  there  goes  on  the  functional  evolution 
which  establishes  large  and  rapid  movements  of  blood, 
definite  in  their  courses  and  definitely  distinguished  as 
efferent  and  afferent,  and  that  are  heterogeneous  not  simply 
in  their  directions  but  in  their  characters — being  here  di- 
vided into  gushes  and  there  continuous. 

Instance,  again,  the  way  in  which,  accompanying  the 
structural  differentiations  and  integrations  of  the  aliment- 
ary canal,  there  arise  differentiations  and  integrations 
both  of  its  mechanical  movements  and  its  actions  of  a  hon- 
.  mechanical  kind.  Along  an  alimentary  canal  of  a  primitive 
type,  there  pass,  almost  uniformly  from  end  to  end,  waves  oi 
constriction.  But  in  a  well-organized  alimentary  canal, 
the  waves  of  constriction  are  widely  unlike  at  different 
parts,  in  their  kinds,  strengths,  and  rapidities.  In  the  mouth 
they  become  movements  of  prehension  and  mastication — ' 
now  occurring  in  quick  succession  and  now  ceasing  for 
hours.  In  the  oesophagus  these  contractions,  propulsive  in 
-their  office,  and  travelling  with  considerable  speed,  take 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED.         3SD 

place  at  intervals  during   eating,  and  then   do  not  tako 
place  till  tlie  next  meal.     In  the   stomach  another  modi- 
fication   of   this    originally   uniform    action    occurs ;    the 
muscular,  constrictions  are  powerful,  and  continue  during 
the  long  periods  that  the  stomach  contains  food.    Through- 
out the  upper  intestines,  again,  a  further  difference  shows 
itself — the   waves  travel  along  without   cessation  but  are 
relatively  moderate.     Finally,   in  the  rectum  this  rhythm 
departs    in    another    way    from   the    common   type :    qui- 
escence lasting  for  many   hours,  is   followed   by  a .  series 
of  strong   contractions.     Meanwhile,  the  essential  actions 
which    these    movements  aid,    have  been  growing    more 
definitely  heterogeneous.       Secretion  and  absorption  are 
no  longer  carried  on  in  much  the  same  way  from  end  to 
end   of  the  tube;  but  the   general   function   divides  into 
various  subordinate  functions.     The  solvents  and  ferments 
furnished  by  the  coats  of  the  canal  and  the  appended  glands, 
become  widely  unlike  at  upper,  middle,  and  lower  parts  of 
the  canal ;  implying  different  kinds  of  molecular  changes. 
Here  the  process  is  mainly  secretory,  there  it  is  mainly 
absorbent,  while  in   other  places,  as  in    the  oesophagus, 
neither  secretion  nor  absorption  takes  place  to   any  ap- 
preciable extent.  While  these  and  other  internal 
motions,  sensible  and  insensible,  are  being  rendered  more 
various,  and  severally  more  consolidated  and  distinct,  there 
is  advancing  the  inte^ation  by  which  they  are  united  into 
local  groups  of  motions  and  a  combined  system  of  motions. 
While  the  function  of  alimentation  sub-divides,  its   sub- 
divisions become  co-ordinated,  so  that  muscular  and  secretory 
actions  go  on  in  concert,  and  so  that  excitement  of  one  part 
of  the  canal  sets  up  excitement  of  the  rest.     Moreover,  the 
whole  alimentary  function,  while  it  supplies  matter  for  the 
circulatory  and  respiratory  functions,  becomes  so  integrated 
with  them  that  it  cannot  for  a  moment  go  on  without  them. 
And,  as  evolution  advances,  all  three  of  these  fundamental 
functions   fall   into   greater   subordination  to  the   nervous 


390         THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED. 

functions — depend  more  and  more  on  tlie  due  amount  of 
nervous  discliarge. 

When  we  trace  up  tlie  functions  of  external  organs  the 
same  trutli  discloses  itself.  Microscopic  creatures  are  moved 
tlirough  the  water  by  oscillations  of  the  cilia  covering  their 
surfaces  ;  and  various  larger  forms,  as  the  Turhellaria,  pro- 
gress by  ciliary  action  over  solid  surfaces.  These  motions 
of  cilia  are,  in  the  first  place,  severally  very  minute ;  in  tho 
second  place  they  are  homogeneous ;  and  in  the  third  place 
there  is  but  little  definiteness'  in  them  individually,  or  in 
their  joint  product,  which  is  mostly  a  mere  random  change 
of  place  not  directed  to  any  selected  point.  Contrasting 
this  ciliary  action  with  the  action  of  developed  locomotive 
organs  of  whatever  kind,  we  see  that  instead  of  innumerable 
small  or  unintegrated  movements  there  are  a  few  compara- 
tively large  or  integrated  movements ;  that  actions  all  alike 
are  replaced  by  actions  partially  unlike ;  and  that  instead  of 
being  very  feebly  or  almost  accidentally  co-ordinated,  their 
co-ordination  is  such  as  to  render  the  motions  of  the  body 
as  a  whole,  precise.  A  parallel  contrast,  less  ex- 

treme but  sufficiently  decided,  is  seen  when  we  pass  from 
the  lower  types  of  creatures  with  limbs  to  the  higher  types 
of  creatures  with  limbs.  The  legs  of  a  Centipede  have 
motions  that  are  numerous,  small,  and  homogeneous ;  and 
are  so  little  integrated  that  when  the  creature  is  divided 
and  sub-divided,  the  legs  belonging  to  each  part  propel 
that  part  independently.  But  in  one  of  the  higher  Annu- 
losa,  as  a  Crab,  the  relatively  few  limbs  have  motions 
that  are  comparatively  largo  in  their  amounts,' that  are 
considerably  unlike  one  another,  and  that  are  integrated 
into  compound  motions  of  tolerable  definiteness. 

§  143.  The  last  illustrations  are  introductory  to  illustra- 
tions of  the  kind  we  class  as  psychical.  They  are  the  physio- 
logical aspects  of  the  simpler  among  those  functions  which, 
under  a  more  special  and  complex  aspect,  we  distinguish  aa 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED.         391 

psychological.  Tlio  phenomena  subjectively  known  a? 
changes  in  consciousness^  are  objectively  known  as  nervous 
excitations  and  discharges^  which  science  now  interprets  into 
modes  of  motion.  Henco,  in  following  up  organic  evolution^ 
the  advance  of  retained  motion  in  integration,  in  hetero- 
geneity, and  in  definiteness,  may  be  expected  to  show  itself 
alike  in  the  visible  nervo-muscular  actions  and  in  tho  cor- 
relative mental  changes.  "VYo  may  conveniently  look  at  the 
facts  as  exhibited  during  individual  evolution,  before  looking 
at  them  as  exhibited  in  general  evolution. 

Tho  progress  of  a  child  in  speech,  very  completely  ex- 
hibits the  transformation.  Infantine  noises  are  comparatively 
homogeneous;  alike  as  being  severally  long-drawn  and 
nearly  uniform  from  end  to  end,  and  as  being  constantly 
repeated  with  but  little  variation  of  quality  between  narrow 
limits.  They  are  quite  un-coordinated — there  is  no  integra- 
tion of  them  into  compound  sounds.  They  are  inarticulate, 
or  without  those  definite  beginnings  and  endings  character- 
izing the  sounds  we  call  words.  Progress  shows  itself  first 
in  the  multiplication  of  the  inarticulate  sounds :  tho  extreme 
vowels  are  added  to  the  medium  vowels,  and  the  compound 
to  tho  simple.  Presently  the  movements  which  form  the 
simpler  consonants  are  achieved,  and  some  of  tho  sounds 
become  sharply  cut ;  but  this  definiteness  is  partial,  for  only 
initial  consonants  being  used,  the  sounds  end  vaguely. 
Whilo  an  approach  to  distinctness  thus  results,  there  also 
results,  by  combination  of  difierent  consonants  with  tho 
same  vowels,  an  increase  of  heterogeneity ;  and  along  with 
tho  complete  distinctness  which  terminal  consonants  givo, 
arises  a  further  great  addition  to  the  number  of  unlike 
sounds  produced.  Tho  more  difficult  consonants  and  tho 
compound  consonants,  imperfectly  articulated  dt  first,  are 
by  and  by  articulated  with  "nrec^'^j^^nr^^nd  there  comes  yet 
another  multitude  of  :^  further!  *°  *^®  "  words — words 
tbut  imply  many  kinds  oi  vuc«i  movuments,  severally  per- 
iormed  with  exactness,  as  well  as  perfectly  integrated  into 


892  THE   LAW  OF  EVOLUTION   COITCLUDED. 

complex  groups.  Tlie  subsequent  advance  to  dissyllables 
and  polysyllables,  and  to  involved  combinations  of  words^, 
sbows  tbe  still  bigber  degree  of  integration  and  beterogeneity 
eventually  reacbed  by  tbese  organic  motions.  Tbe 

acts  of  consciousness  correlated  witb  tbese  nerve-mus- 
cular acts,  of  course  go  tbrougb  parallel  pbases;  and  tbe 
advance  from  cbildbood  to  maturity  yields  daily  proof  tbat 
tbe  cbanges  wbicb,  on  tbeir  pbysrcal  side  are  nervous  pro- 
cesses, and  on  tbeir  mental  side  are  processes  of  tbougbt, 
become  more  various,  more  defined,  more  coberent.  At 
first  tbe  intellectual  functions  are  very  mucb  abke  in  kind — 
recognitions  and  classifications  of  simple  impressions  alone 
go  on;  but  in  course  of  time  tbese  functions  become  multi- 
form. Reasoning  grows  distinguisbable,  and  eventually  wo 
bave  conscious  induction  and  deduction;  debberate  recollec- 
tion and  deliberate  imagination  are  added  to  simple  un- 
guided  association  of  ideas ;  more  special  modes  of  mental 
action,  as  tbose  wbicb  result  in  matbematics,  music,  poetry, 
arise;  and  witbin  eacb  of  tbese  divisions  tbe  mental  pro- 
cesses are  ever  being  furtber  difierentiated.  In  definiteness 
it  is  tbe  same.  Tbe  infant  makes  its  observations  so  inac- 
curately tbat  it  fails  to  distinguisb  individuals.  Tbe  cbild 
errs  continually  in  its  spelling,  its  grammar,  its  aritbmetic. 
Tbe  youtb  forms  incorrect  judgments  on  tbe  afiairs  of  life. 
Only  witb  maturity  comes  tbat  precise  co-ordination  in  tbe 
nervous  processes  tbat  is  implied  by  a  good  adjustment  of 
tbougbts  to  tbings.  Lastly,  witb  tbe  integration  by  wbicb 
simple  mental  acts  are  combined  into  complex  mental  acts, 
it  is  so  likewise.  In  tbe  nursery  you  cannot  obtain  con- 
tinuous attention — tbere  is  inability  to  form  a  coberent 
series  of  impressions ;  and  tbere  is  a  parallel  inability  to 
unite  many  co-existent  impressions,  even  of  tbe  same  order : , 
witness  tbe  way  in  wbicb  a  cbild's  remarks  on  a  picture, 
sbow  tbat  it  attends  only!  -j^-^dividual  objects  repre- 

sented, and  never  to  tbe  picibure  as  a  wbole.  But  with 
advancintj  years  it  becomes  possible  to  understand  an  in- 


THE   LAW  OE   EVOLUTION   CONCLUDED.  393 

Tolved  sentence,  to  follow  long  trains  of  reasoning,  to  liold 
ill  one  mental  grasp  nnmeiwus  concnrrent  circumstances. 
The  like  progressive  integration  takes  place  among  the 
mental  changes  we  distingnish  as  feelings ;  which,  in  a  child 
act  singly,  produ,cing  impulsiveness,  but  in  an  adult  act 
more  in  concert,  producing  a  comparatively  balanced  conduct. 
After  these  illustrations  supplied  by  individual  evolution, 
we  may  deal  briefly  with  those  supplied  by  general  evolu- 
tion, which  are  analogous  to  them.  A  creature  of  very  low 
intelligence,  when  aware  of  some  large  object  in  motion 
near  it,  makes  a  spasmodic  movement,  causing,  it  may 
be,  a  leap  or  a  dart.  The  perceptions  implied  are  re- 
latively simple,  homogeneous,  and  indefinite  :  the  moving 
objects  are  not  distinguished  in  their  kinds  as  injurious  or 
otherwise,  as  advancing  or  receding.  The  actiohs  of  escape 
are  similarly  all  of  one  kind,  have  no  adjustments  of  direc- 
tion, and  may  bring  the  creature  nearer  the  source  of  perd 
instead  of  further  off.  A  stage  higher,  when  the  dart  or  the 
leap  is  away  from  danger,  we  see  the  nervous  changes  so 
far  specialized  that  there  results  distinction  of  direction; 
indicating  a  greater  variety  among  them,  a  greater  co-ordi- 
nation or  integration  of  them  in  each  process,  and  a  greater 
definiteness.  In  still  higher  animals  that  discriminate  be- 
tween enemies  and  not-enemies,  as  a  bird  that  flies  from  a 
man  but  not  from  a  cow,  the  acts  of  perception  have 
severally  become  united  into  more  complex  wholes,  since 
cognition  of  certain  differential  attributes  is  implied ;  they 
havo  become  more  multiform,  since  each  additional,  com- 
ponent impression  adds  to  the  number  of  possible  com- 
pounds ;  and  they  have,  by  consequence,  become  more  spe- 
cific in  their  correspondences  with  objects — more  definite. 
And  then  in  animals  so  intelligent  that  they  identify  by 
eight  not  species  only  but  individuals  of  a  species,  the 
mental  changes  are  yet  further  distinguished  in  the  same 
three  ways.  In  the  course  of  human  evolution  the 

law  is  equally  manifested.     The  thoughts  of  the  savage  are 


394         THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDEr. 

notlimg  like  so  heterogeneous  in  tlieir  kinds  as  those  of  the 
civilized  man^  whose  complex  environment  presents  a  multi- 
plicity of  new  phenomena.  His  mental  acts,  too,  are  much 
less  involved — he  has  no  words  for  abstract  ideas,  and  is 
found  to  be  incapable  of  integrating  the, elements  of  such 
ideas.  And  in  all  hut  simple  matters  there  is  none  of  that 
precision  in  his  thinking  which,  among  civilized  men,  leads 
to  the  exact  conclusions  of  science.  Nor  do  the  emotions 
fail  to  exhibit  a  parallel  contrast. 

§  144.  How  in  societies  the  movements  or  functions  pro-  ■ 
duced  by  the  confluence  of  individual  actions,  increase  in 
their  amounts,  their  multiformities,  their  precision,  and 
their  combination,  scarcely  needs  insisting  upon  after  what 
has  been  pointed  out  in  foregoing  chapters.  For  the  sake 
of  symmetry  of  statement,  however,  a  typical  example  or 
two  may  be  set  down. 

Take  the  actions  devoted  to  defence  or  aggression.  At 
first  the  military  function,  undifferentiated  from  the  rest  (all 
men  in  primitive  societies  being  warriors)  is  relatively 
homogeneous,  is  ill-combined,  and  is  indefinite:  savages 
making  a  joint  attack  severally  fight  independently,  in 
similar  ways,  and  without  order.  But  as  societies  evolve 
and  the  miUtary  function  becomes  separate,  we  see  that 
while  its  scale  increases,  it  progresses  in  multiformity, 
in  definiteness,  and  in  combination.  The  movements 
of  the  thousands  of  soldiers  that  replace  the  tens  of 
warriors,  are  divided  and  re-divided  in  their  kinds — ^hero 
are  bodies  that  manoeuvre  and  fire  artillery;  there  are 
battalions  that  fight  on  foot ;  and  elsewhere  are  troops  that 
charge  on  horseback.  Within  each  of  these  differentiated 
functions  there  come  others :  there  are  distinct  duties  dis- 
charged by  privates,  sergeants,  captains,  colonels,  generals, 
as  also  by  those  who  constitute  the  commissariat  and  those 
who-  attend  to  the  wounded.  The  actions  that  have  thus 
become  comparatively  heterogeneous  in  general  and  in  de- 


THE  LAW  OP  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED.         395 

tail,  have  simultaneously  increased  in  prscision.  Accuracy 
of  evolutions  is  given  by  perpetual  drill ;  so  that  in  battle, 
men  and  tliG  regiments  formed  of  them,  arc  made  to  take 
definite  positions  and  perform  definite  acts  at  definite  times. 
Once  more,  there  has  gone  on  that  integration  by  which  tho 
multiform  actions  of  an  army  are  directed  to  a  single  end. 
By  a  co-ordinating  apparatus  having  the  commander-in- 
chief  for  its  centre,  tho  charges,  and  halts,  and  retreats  are 
duly  concerted ;  and  a  hundred  thousand  individual  actions 
are  united  under  one  will. 

Tho  progress  hero  so  clearly  marked,  is  a  progress  trftce- 
ablo  throughout  social  functions  at  large.  Comparing  tho 
rule  of  a  savage  chief  with  that  of  a  civilized  government, 
aided  by  its  subordinate  local  governments  and  their  officers, 
down  to  the  police  in  tho  streets,  wo.  see  how,  as  men  have 
advanced  from  tribes  of  tens  to  nations  of  millions,  the  re- 
gulative process  has  grown  large  in  amount ;  how,  guided 
by  written  laws,  it  has  passed  from  vagueness  and  irregu- 
larity to  comparative  precision ;  and  how  it  has  sub-divided 
into  processes  increasingly  multiform.  Or  observing  how 
the  barter  that  goes  on  among  barbarians,  differs  from  our 
own  commercial  processes,  by  which  a  million's  worth  of  com- 
modities is  distributed  daily ;  by  which  the  relative  values 
of  articles  immensely  varied  in  kinds  and  qualities  are 
measured,  and  the  supplies  adjusted  to  tho  demands ;  and 
by  which  industrial  activities  of  all  orders  are  so  combined 
that  each  depends  on  the  rest  and  aids  the  rest ;  we  see  that 
the  kind  o£  action  which  constitutes  trade,  has  become  pro- 
gressively more  vast,  more  varied,  more  definite^  and  moro 
integrated, 

§  145.  A  finished  conception  of  Evolution  we  thus  find 
to  bo  one  which  includes  the  re-distribution  of  the  retained 
motion,  as  well  as  that  of  the  component  matter.  This 
added  element  of  the  conception  is  scarcely,  if  at  all,  less 
important  than  the  other.      The  movements  of  the  Solar 


396         THE  LAW  OF  EVOLUTION  CONCLUDED. 

System  have  for  us  a  significance  equal  to  tliat  wliicli  tlie 
sizes,  forms,  and  relative  distances  of  its  members  possess. 
And  of  tlie  phenomena  presented  by  an  organism,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  combined  sensible  and  in- 
sensible actions  we  call  its  life,  do  not  yield  in  interest  to 
its  structural  traits.  Leaving  out,  however,  all  implied 
reference  to  the  way  in  which  these  two  orders  of  facts  con- 
cern us,  it  is  clear  that  with  each  re-distribution  of  matter 
there  necessarily  goes  a  re-distribution  of  motion ;  and  that 
the  unified  knowledge  constituting  Philosophy,  must  com- 
prelfend  both  aspects  of  the  transformation. 

While,  then,  we  have  to  contemplate  the  matter  of  an 
evolving  aggregate  as  undergoing,  not  progressive  iutegra- 
tion  simply,  but  as  simultaneously  undergoing  various 
secondary  re-distributions  ;  we  have  also  to  contemplate  the 
motion  of  an  evolving  aggregate,  not  only  as  being  gradually 
dissipated,  but  as  passing  through  many  secondary  re-distri- 
butions on  the  way  towards  dissipation.  As  the  structural 
complexities  that  arise  during  compound  evolution,  are  in- 
cidental to  the  progress  from  the  extreme  of  difi'usion  to  the 
extreme  of  concentration;  so  the  functional  complexities 
accompanying  them,  are  incidental  to  the  progress  from  the 
greatest  quantity  of  contained  motion  to  the  least  quantity 
of  contained  motion.  And  we  have  to  state  these  con- 
comitants of  both  transformations,  as  well  as  their  begin- 
nings and  ends. 

Our  formula,  therefore,  needs  an  additional  clause.  To 
combine  this  satisfactorily  with  the  clauses  as  they  stand  in 
the  last  chapter,  is  scarcely  practicable;  and  for  convenience 
of  expression  it  will  be  best  to  change  their  order.  Doing 
this,  and  making  the  requisite  addition,  the  formula  finally 
stands  thus  : — Evolution  is  an  integration  of  matter  and  con- 
comitant dissipation  of  motion;  during  which  the  matter 
passes  from  an  indefinite^  incoherent  homogeneity  to  a  de- 
finite, coherent  heterogeneity  ;  and  during  which  the  retained 
motion  undergoes  a  parallel  transformation. 


CHAPTER  XVIIT. 

THE    INTERPRETATION    OF    EVOLUTION. 

§  146.  Is  this  law  ultimate  or  derivative  ?  Must  we  rc;^t 
satisfied  with  the  couclusion  that  throughout  all  classes  of 
concrete  phenomena  such  is  the  course  of  transformation  ? 
Or  is  it  possible  for  us  to  ascertain  why  such  is  the  course 
of  transformation?  May  wo  seek  for  some  all-pervading 
principle  which  underlies  this  all-pervading  process  ?  Can 
the  inductions  set  forth  in  the  preceding  four  chapters  bo 
reduced  to  deductions? 

Manifestly  this  community  of  result  implies  community  of 
cause.  It  may  bo  that  of  such  cause  no  account  can  bo 
given,  further  than  that  the  Unknowable  is  manifested  to  us 
after  this  mode.  Or,  it  may  bo  that  this  mode  of  mani- 
festation is  reducible  to  a  simpler  mode,  from  which  these 
many  complex  effects  follow.  Analogy  suggests  the  latter 
inference.  Just  as  it  was  possible  to  interpret  the  empirical 
generalizations  called  Kepler^s  laws,  as  necessary  conse- 
quences of  the  law  of  gravitation ;  so  it  may  be  possible  to 
interpret  the  foregoing  empirical  generalizations  as  neces- 
sary consequences  of  some  deeper  law. 

Unless  we  succeed  in  finding  a  rationale  of  this  universal 
metamorphosis,  we  obviously  fall  short  of  that  completely 
unified  knowlcdgo,  constituting  Philosophy.  As  they  at 
present  stand,  the  several  conclusions  we  have  lately  reached 
appear  to  be  independent — ^there  is  no  demonstrated  con- 


398  THE   INTERPRETATION   OP   EVOLUTION. 

nexion  between  increasing  definiteness  and  increasing  hete- 
rogeneity^  or  between  both  and  increasing  integration.  Still 
less  evidence  is  there  tliat  these  laws  of  the  re-distribution 
of  matter  and  motion,  are  necessarily  correlated  with  those 
laws  of  the  direction  of  motion  and  the  rhythm  of  motion, 
previously  set  forth.  But  until  we  see  these  now  separate 
truths  to  be  implications  of  ono  trilth,  our  knowledge  re- 
mains imperfectly  coherent. 

§  147.  The  task  before  us,  then,  is  that  of  exhibiting  the 
phenomena  of  Evolution  in  synthetic  order.  Setting  out 
from  an  established  ultimate  principle,  it  has  to  bo  shown 
that   the   course    of   transformation    among   all    kinds    of 

,  existences,  cannot  but  be  that  which  we  have  seen  it  to  be. 
It  has  to  be  shown  that  'the  re-distribution  of  matter  and 

» motion,  must  everywhere  take  place  in  those  ways,  and  pro- 
duce those  traits,  which  celestial  bodies,  organisms,  societies, 
alike  display.  And  it  has  to  bo  shown  that  this  universality 
of  process,  results  from  the  same  necessity  which  determines 
each  simplest  movement  around  us,  down  to  the  accelerated 
fall  of  a  stone  or  the  recurrent  beat  of  a  .harp-string. 

In  other  words,  the  phenomena  of  Evolution  have  to  be 
deduced  from  the  Persistence  of  Force.  As  before  said — 
"  to  this  an  ultimate  analysis  brings  us  down ;  and  on  this 

'  a  rational  synthesis  must  build  up."  This  being  the 
ultimate  truth  which  transcends  experience  by  underlying 
it,  so  furnishing  a  common  basis  on  which  the  widest  gene- 
ralizations stand,  these  widest  generalizations  are  to  be 
unified  by  referring  them  to  this  common  basis.  Already 
the  truths  manifested  throughout  concrete  phenomena  of  all 
orders,  that  there  is  equivalence  among  transformed  forces, 
that  motion  follows  the  line  of  least  resistance,  and  that  it  is 
universally  rhythmic,  we  have  found  to  be  severally  deduciblo 
from  the  persistence  of  force  j  and  this  affiliation  of  them  on 
the  persistence  of  force  has  reduced  them  to  a  coherent 
whole.     Here  we  have  similarly  to  affiliate  the  universal 


THE   IXTERPEETATION   OP   EVOLUTION.  399 

h-aits  of  Evolution,  by  showing  that,  given  the  persistence 
of  force,  the  re-distribution  of  matter  and  motion  neces- 
sarily proceeds  in  such  way  as  to  produce  them ;  and  by 
doing  this  we  shall  unite  them  as  co-relative  aspects  of  one  • 
law,  at  the  same  time  that  we  unite  this  law  with  the  fore- 
going simpler  laws. 

§  148.  Before  proceeding  it  will  be  well  to  set  down  some 
principles  that  must  be  borne  in  mind.  In  interpreting 
Evolution  we  shall  have  to  consider,  under  their  special  forms, 
the  various  resolutions  of  force  that  accompany  the  re-distri- 
bution of  matter  and  motion.  Let  us  glance  at  such  resolu- 
tions under  their  most  general  forms. 

Any  incident  force  is  primarily  divisible  into  its  effective 
and  non-effective  portions.  In  mechanical  impact,  the  entire 
momentum  of  a  striking  body  is  never  communicated  to  the 
body  struck :  even  under  those  most  favourable  conditions 
in  which  the  striking  body  loses  all  its  sensible  motion, 
there  still  remains  with  it  some  of  the  original  momentum, 
under  the  shape  of  that  insensible  motion  produced  among 
its  particles  by  the  collision.  Of  the  light  or  heat  falUng  on 
any  mass,  a  part,  more  or  less  considerable, is  reflected;  and 
only  tho  remaining  part  works  molecular  changes  in  the 
mass.  Next  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  effective 

force  is  itself  divisible  into  the  temjporarily  effective  and  the 
'permanently  effective.  The  units  of  an  aggregate  acted  on, 
may  undergo  those  rhythmical  changes  of  relative  position 
which  constitute  increased  vibration,  as  well  as  other 
changes  of  relative  position  which  are  not  from  instant  to 
instant  neutralized  by  opposite  ones.  Of  these,  the  first, 
disappearing  in  the  shape  of  radiating  undulations,  leave  the 
molecular  arrangement  as  it  originally  was ;  while  the  se- 
cond conduce  to  that  re-arrangement  characterizing  com- 
pound Evolution.  Yet  a  further  distinction  has 
to  be  made.  The  permanently  effective  force  works  out 
changes  of  relative  position  of  two  kindg — the  insensible 


400  THE  >  INTEEPEETATION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

and  tlie  senslhle.  The  insensible  transpositions  among  tLo 
units  are  those  constituting  molecular  changes,  including 
what  we  call  chemical  composition  and  decomposition ;  and 
it  is  these  which  we  recognize  as  the  qualitative  differences 
that  arise  in  an  aggregate.     The  sensible  transpositions  are 

,  such  as  result  when  certain  of  the  units,  instead  of  being 
put  into  different  relations  with  their  immediate  neighbours, 
are  carried  away  from  them  and  deposited  elsewhere. 

Concerning  these  divisions  and  sub-divisions  of  any  forco 
affecting  an  aggregate,  the  fact  which  it  chiefly  concerns  us 
to  observe  is,  that  they  are  complementary  to  each  other. 
Of  the  whole  incident  force,  the  effective  must  be  that  which 
remains  after  deducting  the  non-effective.  The  two  parts  of 
the  effective  force  must  vary  inversely  as  each  other  :  where 
much  of  it  is  temporarily  effective,  little  of  it  can  be  perma- 
nently effective ;  and  vice  versa.  Lastly,  the  permanently 
effective  force,  being  expended  in  working  both  the  insen- 

•  sible  re-arrangements  which  constitute  molecular  modifica- 
tion, and  the  sensible  re-arrangements  which  result  in 
structure,  must  generate  of  either  kind  an  amount  that  is 
great  or  small  in  proportion  as  it  has  generated  a  small  or 
great  amount  of  the  other. 


CEAPTER  XIX. 


THE   INSTABILITY   OF  THE   HOMOGENEOUS.* 


§  149.  The  difficulty  of  dealing  with  transformations  so 
many-sided  as  those  whicli  all  existences  have  undergone,  or 
are  undergoing,  is  such  as  to  make  a  definite  or  complete 
deductive  interpretation  seem  almost  hopeless.  So  to  grasp 
the  total  process  of  re-distribution  of  matter  and  motion,  as 
to  see  simultaneously  its  several  necessary  results  in  their 
actual  inter-dependence,  is  scarcely  possible.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  mode  of  rendering  the  process  as  a  whole  tolerably 
comprehensible.  Though  the  genesis  of^the  re-arrangement 
undergone  by  every  evolving  aggregate,  is  in  itself  one,  it 
presents  to  our  intelligence  several  factors;  and  after  in- 
terpreting the  effects  of  each  separately,  we  may,  by  synthesis 
of  the  interpretations,  form  an  adequate  conception. 

On  setting  out,  the  proposition  which  comes  first  in  logical 
order,  is,  that  some  re-arrangement  must  result;  and  this 
proposition  may  be  best  dealt  with  under  the  more  specific 
shape,  that  the  condition  of  homogeneity  is  a  condition  of 
unstable  equilibrium. 

First,  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  terms  ;  respecting  which 
some  readers  may  need  explanation.  The  phrase  unstable 
equilibrium  is  one  used  in  mechanics  to  express  a  balance  of 
forces  of  such  kind,  that  the  interference  of  any  further  force, 
however  minute,  will  destroy  the  arrangement  previously 

*  The  idea  developed  in  this  chapter  originally  formed  part  of  an  article  oa 
Transcendental  Physiology,"  publisUod  in  1857.     See  Essays,  pp.  27&— 290 


402  THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS. 

Bubsisting  ;  and  bring  about  a  totally  different  arrangement. 
Thus,  a  stick  poised  on  its  lower  end  is  in  unstable  equili- 
brium :  however  exactly  it  may  be  placed  in  a  perpendicular 
position,  as  soon  as  it  is  left  to  itself  it  begins,  at  first  imper- 
ceptibly, to  lean  on  one  side,  and  with  increasing  rapidity 
falls  into  another  attitude.  Conversely,  a  stick  suspended 
from  its  upper  end  is  *in  stable  equilibrium :  however  much 
disturbed,  it  will  return  to  the  same  position.  The  proposi- 
tion is,  then,  that  the  state  of  homogeneity,  like  the  state  of 
the  stick  poised  on  its  lower  end,  is  one  that  cannot  be  main- 
tained.    Let  us  take  a  few  illustrations. 

Of  mechanical  ones  the  most  familiar  is  that  of  the  scales. 
If  they  be  accurately  made,  and  not  clogged  by  dirt  or  rust, 
it  is  impossible  to  keep  a  pair  of  scales  perfectly  balanced  : 
eventually  one  scale  will  descend  and  the  other  ascend— they 
will  assume  a  heterogeneous  relation.  Again,  if  we  sprinkle 
over  the  surface  of  a  fluid  a  number  of  equal-sized  particles, 
having  an  attraction  for  each  other,  they  will,  no  matter  how 
uniformly  distributed,  by  and  by  concentrate  irregularly  into 
one  or  more  groups^.  Were  it  possible  to  bring  a  mass  of 
water  into  a  state  of  perfect  homogeneity — a  state  of  complete 
quiescence,  and  exactly  equal  density  throughout — yet  the 
radiation  of  heat  from  neighbouring  bodies,  by  affecting 
differently  its  different  parts,  would  inevitably  produce  in- 
equalities of  density  and  consequent  currents  ;  and  would  so 
render  it  to  that  extent  heterogeneous.  Take  a  piece  of  red- 
hot  matter,  and  however  evenly  heated  it  may  at  first  be,  it 
will  quickly  cease  to  be  so :  the  exterior,  cooling  faster  than 
the  interior,  will  become  different  in  temperature  from  it. 
And  the  lapse  into  heterogeneity  of  temperature,  so  obvious 
in  this  extreme  case,  takes  place  more  or  less  in  all 
cases.  The  action  of  chemical  forces  supplies  other 

illustrations.  Expose  a  fragment  of  metal  to  air  or  water, 
and  in  course  of  time  it  will  be  coated  with  a  film  of  oxide, 
carbonate,  or  other  compound :  that  is — its  outer  parts  will 
become  unlike  its  inner  parts.     Usually  the  heterogeneity 


THE   INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS.  40;j 

produced  by  the  action  of  chemical  forces  on  the  surfaces  of 
masses,  is  not  striking ;  because  the  changed  portions  are 
soon  washed  away,  or  otherwise  removed.  But  if  this  is  pre- 
vented, comparatively  complex  structures  result.  Quarries 
of  trap-rock  contain  some  striking  examples.  Not  un- 
frequently  a  piece  of  trap  may  be  found  reduced,  by  the 
action  of  the  weather,  to  a  number  of  loosely- adherent  coats, 
like  those  of  an  onion.  ^Yhere  the  block  has  been  quite  un- 
disturbed, we  may  trace  the  whole  series  of  these,  from  the 
angular,  irregular  outer  one,  through  successively  included 
ones  in  which  the  shape  becomes  gradually  rounded,  ending 
finally  in  a  spherical  nucleus.  On  comparing  the  original 
mass  of  stone  with  this  group  of  concentric  coats,  each  of 
which  diflfers  from  the  rest  in  form,  and  probably  in  the  state 
of  decomposition  at  which  it  has  arrived,  we  get  a  marked 
illustration  of  the  multiformity  to  which,  in  lapse  of  time, 
a  uniform  body  may  be  brought  by  external  chemical 
action.  •  The  instability  of  the  homogeneous  is  equally 

seen  in  the  changes  set  up  throughout  the  interior  of  a  mass, 
when  it  consists  of  units  that  are  not  rigidly  bound  together. 
The  atoms  of  a  precipitate  never  remain  separate,  and  equably 
distributed  through  the  fluid  in  which  they  make  their  ap- 
pearance. They  aggregate  either  into  crj^stalline  grains, 
each  containing  an  immense  number  of  atoms,  or  they  aggre- 
gate into  flocculi,  each  containing  a  yet  larger  number ;  and 
where  the  mass  of  fluid  is  great,  and  the  process  prolonged, 
these  flocculi  do  not  continue  equi- distant,  but  break  up  into 
groups.  That  is  to  say,  there  is  a  destruction  of  the  balance 
at  first  subsisting  among  the  difiused  particles,  and  also  of 
the  balance  at  first  subsisting  among  the  groups  into  which 
these    particles    imite.  Certain   solutions   of   non 

crystalline  substances  in  highly  volatile  liquids,  exhibit  in 
the  course  of  half  an  hour- a  whole  series  of  changes  that  are 
set  up  in  the  alleged  way.  If  for  example  a  little  shell-lac- 
varnish  (made  by  dissolving  shell-lac  in  coal-naptha  until  it 
is  of  the  consistence  of  cream)  be  poured  on  a  piece  of  paper, 


404  THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS. 

the  surface  of  tlie  varnisli  will  shortly  become  marked  by 
polygonal  divisions,  wbicb,  first  appearing  round  the  edge  of 
the  mass,  spread  towards  its  centre.  Under  a  lense  tbese 
irregular  polygons  of  five  or  more  sides,  are  seen  to  be  sever- 
ally bounded  by  dark  lines,  on  eacb  side  of  wHcli  there  arc 
light-coloured  borders.  By  the  addition  of  matter  to  their 
inner  edges,  the  borders  slowly  broaden,  and  thus  encroach 
on  the  areas  of  the  polygons;  until  at  length  there  re- 
mains nothing  but  a  dark  spot  in  the  centre  of  each.  At 
the  same  time  the  boundaries  of  the  polygons  become  curved ; 
and  they  end  by  appearing  like  spherical  sacs  pressed  toge- 
ther ;  strangely  simulating  (but  only  simulating)  a  group  of 
nucleated  cells.  Here  a  rapid  loss  of  homogeneity  is  ex- 
hibited in  three  ways : — First,  in  the  formation  of  the  film, 
which  is  the  seat  of  these  changes ;  second,  in  the  formation 
of  the  polygonal  sections  into  which  this  film  divides ;  and 
third,  in  the  contrast  that  arises  between  the  polygonal  sec- 
tions round  the  edge,  where  they  are  small  and  early  formed, 
and  those  in  the  centre  which  are  larger  and  formed  later. 

*  The  instability  thus  variously  illustrated  is  obviously  con- 
sequent on  the  fact,  that  the  several  parts  of  any  homoge- 
neous aggregation  are  necessarily  exposed  to  different  forces 
— forces  that  differ  either  in  kind  or  amount ;  and  being  ex- 
posed to  different  forces  they  are  of  necessity  differently 
modified.  The  relations  of  outside  and  inside,  and  of  com- 
parative nearness  to  neighbouring  sources  of  influence,  imply 
the  reception  of  influences  that  are  unlike  in  quantity  or 
quality,  or  both  ;  and  it  follows  that  unlike  changes  will  be 
produced  in  the  parts  thus  dissimilarly  acted  upon. 

For  like  reasons  it  is  manifest  that  the  process  must  re- 
peat itself  in  each  of  the  subordinate  groups  of  units  that  are 
differentiated  by  the  modifying  forces.  Each  of  these  sub- 
ordinate groups,  like  the  original  group,  must  gradually,  in 
obedience  to  the  influences  acting  upon  it,  lose  its  balance  ot 
parts — must  pass  from  a  uniform  into  a  multiform  state. 
And  so  on  continuously.  Whence  indeed  it  is  cleai 


THE    INSTABILITY    OF    THE    H()M()GENEOi;S.  405 

that  not  only^  must  the  homogeneous  lapse  into  the  non- 
homogeneous,  but  that  the  more  homogeneous  must  tend 
ever  to  become  less  homogeneous.  If  any  given  whole,  in- 
stead of  being  absolutely  uniform  throughout,  consist  of  parts 
distinguishable  from  each  other — if  each  of  these  parts,  while 
somewhat  unlike  other  parts,  is  uniform  within  itself;  then, 
each  of  them  being  in  unstable  equilibrium,  it  follows  that 
while  the  changes  set  up  within  it  must  render  it  multiform, 
they  must  at  the  same  time  render  the  whole  more  multi- 
form than  before.  The  general  principle,  now  to  be  follow- 
ed out  in  its  applications,  is  thus  somewhat  more  compre- 
hensive than  the  title  of  the  chapter  implies.  No  demurrer  to 
the  conclusions  drawn,  can  be  based  on  the  ground  that  perfect 
homogeneity  nowhere  exists ;  since,  whether  that  state  with 
which  we  commence  be  or  be  not  one  of  perfect  homogeneity, 
the  process  must  equally  be  towards  a  relative  heterogeneity. 

§  150.  The  stars  are  distributed  with  a  three-fold  irre- 
gularity. There  is  first  the  marked  contrast  between  the 
plane  of  the  milky  way  and  other  parts  of  the  heavens,  in 
respect  of  the  quantities  of  stars  within  given  visual  areas. 
There  are  secondary  contrasts  of  like  kind  in  the  milky  way 
itself,  which  has  its  thick  and  thin  places ;  as  well  as 
throughout  the  celestial  spaces  in  general,  which  are  much 
more  closely  strown  in  some  regions  than  in  others.  And 
there  is  a  third  order  of  contrasts  produced  by  the  aggrega- 
tion of  stars  into  small  clusters.  Besides  this  heterogeneity 
of  distribution  of  the  stars  in  general,  considered  without 
distinction  of  kinds,  a  further  such  heterogeneity  is  disclosed 
when  they  are  classified  by  their  differences  of  colour,  which 
doubtless  answer  to  differences  of  physical  constitution 
AVhile  the  yellow  stars  are  found  in  all  parts  of  t}ie  heavens, 
the  red  and  blue  stars  are  not  so  :  there  are  wide  regions  in 
which  both  red  and  blue  stars  are  rare ;  there  are  regions  in 
which  the  blue  occur  in  considerable  numbers,  and  there 
ore  other  regions  in  which  the  red  are  comparatively  abund- 


406  THE   INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS. 

ant.  Yet  one  more  irregularity  of  like  significance  is  pre- 
sented by  the  nebulae, — aggregations  of  matter  which,  what- 
ever be  their  nature,  most  certainly  belong  to  our  sidereal 
system.  For  the  nebulae  are  not  dispersed  with  anything 
like  uniformity ;  but  are  abundant  around  the  poles  of  the 
galactic  circle  and  rare  in  the  neighbourhood  of  its 
plane.     •  1^  one  wiU  expect  that  anything  like  a  de- 

finite interpretation  of  this  structure  can  be  given  on  the 
hypothesis  of  Evolution,  or  any  other  hypothesis.  The  most 
that  can  be  looked  for  is  some  reason  for  thinking  that  irre- 
gularities, not  improbably  of  these  kinds,  would  occur  in  the 
course  of  Evolution,  supposing  it  to  have  taken  place.  Any 
one  called  on  to  assign  such  reason  might  argue,  that  if  the 
matter  of  which  stars  and  all  other  celestial  bodies  consist,  be 
assumed  to  have  originally  existed  in  a  diffused  form  through- 
out a  space  far  more  vast  even  than  that  which  our  sidereal 
system  now  occupies,  the  instability  of  the  homogeneous 
would  negative  its  continuance  in  that  state.  In  default  of 
an  absolute  balance  among  Vhe  forces  with  which  the  dis- 
persed particles  acted  on  each  other  (which  could  not  exist  in 
any  aggregation  having  limits)  he  might  show  that  motion 
and  consequent  changes  of  distribution  would  necessarily 
result.-  The  next  step  in  the  aigument  would  be  that  in 
matter  of  such  extreme  tenuity  and  feeble  cohesion  there 
would  be  motion  towards  local  centres  of  gravity,  as  well  as 
towards  the  general  centre  of  gravity ;  just  as,  to  use  a 
humble  illustration,  the  particles  of  a  precipitate  aggregate 
into  flocculi  at  the  same  time  that  they  sink  towards  the 
earth.  He  might  urge  that  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other, 
these  smallest  and  earliest  local  aggregations  must  gradually 
divide  into  groups,  each  concentrating  to  its  own  centre  of 
gravity, — a  process  which  must  repeat  itself  on  a  larger  and 
larger  scale.  In  conformity  with  the  law  that  motion  once 
set  up  in  any  direction  becomes  itself  a  cause  of  subsequent 
motion  in  that  direction,  he  might  further  infer  that  the 
heterogeneities  thus  set  up  woidd  tend  ever  to  become  more 


THE    INSTABILITY   OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS.  407 

• 

pronounced.  Establisbed  mechanical  principles  would 
justify,  him  in  the  conclusion  that  the  motions  of  these  irre- 
gular masses  of  slightly  aggregated  nebular  matter  towards 
their  common  centre  of  gravity  must  be  severally  rendered 
curvelinear,  by  the  resistance  of  the  medium  from  which  they 
were  precipitated ;  and  that  in  consequence  of  the  irregu- 
laiities  of  distribution  already  set  up,  such  conflicting  curve- 
linear  motions  must,  by  composition  of  forces,  end  in  a  rotation 
of  the  incipient  sidereal  system.  He  might  without  difficulty 
show  that  the  resulting  centrifugal  force  must  so  far  modify  the 
process  of  general  aggregation,  as  to  prevent  anything  like 
uniform  distribution  of  the  stars  eventually  formed — that 
there  must  arise  a  contrast  such  as  we  see  between  the  galac- 
tic circle  and  the  rest  of  the  heavens.  lie  might  draw  the 
further  not  unwarrantable  inference,  that  differences  in  the 
process  of  local  concentration  would  probably  result  from  the 
unlikeness  between  the  physical  conditions  existing  around 
the  general  axis  of  rotation  and  those  existing  elsewhere. 
To  which  lie  might  add,  that  p,fter  the  formation  of  distinct 
stars,  the  ever-increasing  irregularities  of  distribution  due  to 
continuance  of  the  same  causes  would  produce  that  patchi- 
ness  which  distinguishes  the  heavens  in  both  its  larger  and 
smaller  areas.  "We  need  not  here  however  commit 

ourselves  to  such  far-reaching  speculations.  For  the  purposes 
of  the  general  argument  it  is  needful  only  to  show,  that 
any  finite  mass  of  diffused  matter,  even  though  vast  enough 
to  form  our  whole  sidereal  system,  could  not  be  in  stable 
equilibrium  ;  that  in  default  of  absolute  sphericity,  absolute 
uniformity  of  composition,  and  absolute  symmetry  of  relation 
to  all  forces  external  to  it,  its  concentration  must  go  on  with 
an  ever-increasing  irregularity ;  and  that  thus  the  present 
aspect  of  the  heavens  is  not,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  incon- 
gruous with  the  hypothesis  of  a  general  evolution  consequent 
on  the  instability  of  the  homogeneous. 

Descending  to  that  more  limited  form  of  the  nebular  hy- 
pothesis which  regards  the  solar  system  as  having  resulted 


408  THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS. 

by  gradual  conceiitration  ;  and  assuming  this  concentration 
to  have  advanced  so  far  as  to  produce  a  rotating  spheroid  of 
nebulous  matter;  let  us  consider  what  further  consequence 
the  instability  of  the  nomogeneous  necessitates.  Having 
become  oblate  in  figure,  unlike  in  the  densities  of  its  centre 
and  surface,  unlike  in  their  temperatures,  and  unlike  in  the 
velocities  with  which  its  parts  move  round  their  common  axis, 
such  a  mass  can  no  longer  be  called  homogeneous ;  and 
therefore  any  further  changes  exhibited  by  it  as  a  whole,  can 
illustrate  the  general  law,  only  as  being  changes  from  a 
more  homogeneous  to  a  less  homogeneous  state.  Changes  of 
this  kind  are  to  be  found  in  the  transformations  of  such  of  its 
parts  as  are  still  homogeneous  within  themselves.  If  we 
accept  the  conclusion  of  Laplace,  that  the  equatorialportion 
of  this  rotating  and  contracting  spheroid  ^vill  at  successive 
stages  acquire  a  centrifugal  force  great  enough  to  prevent 
any  nearer  approach  to  the  centre  round  which  it  rotates, 
and  will  so  be  left  behind  by  the  inner  parts  of  the  spheroid 
in  its  still- continued  contraction  ;  we  shall  find,  in  the  fate  of 
the  detached  ring,  a  fresh  exemplification  of  the  principle  we 
are  following  out.  Consisting  of  gaseous  matter,  such  a 
ring,  even  if  absolutely  uniform  at  the  time  of  its  detach- 
ment, cannot  continue  so.  To  maintain  its  equilibrium  there 
must  be  an  almost  perfect  uniformity  in  the  action  of  all 
external  forces  upon  it  (almost,  we  must  say,  because  the 
cohesion,  even  of  extremely  attenuated  matter,  might  suffice 
to  neutralize  very  minute  disturbances) ;  and  against  this  the 
probabilities  are  immense.  In  the  absence  of  equality  among 
the  forces,  internal  and  external,  acting  on  such  a  ring, 
there  must  be  a  point  or  points  at  which  the  cohesion  of 
its  parts  is  less  than  elsewhere — a  point  or  points  at  which 
rupture  will  therefore  take  place.  Laplace  assumed  that 
the  ring  would  rupture  at  one  place  only ;  and  would  then 
collapse  on  itself.  But  this  is  a  more  than  questionable 
assumption — such  at  least  I  know  to  be  the  opinion  of  an 
authority   second   to   none   among   those   now   living.      So 


THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS.  4j)<) 

viist  a  ring,  consisting  of  matter  having  such  feeble  cohe- 
sion, must  break  up  into  many  parts.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
still  inferable  from  the  instability  of  the  homogeneous, 
that  the  ultimate  result  which  Laplace  predicted  would 
take  place.  For  even  supposing  the  masses  of  nebuloua 
matter  into  which  such  a  ring  separated,  were  so  equal  in 
their  sizes  and  distances  as  to  attract  each  other  with 
exactly  equal  forces  (which  is  infinitely  improbable):  yet 
the  unequal  action,  of  external  disturbing  forces  would 
inevitably  destroy  their  equilibrium — there  would  be  one  or 
more  points  at  which  adjacent  masses  would  begin  to  part 
company.  Separation  once  commenced,  would  with  ever- 
accelerating  speed  lead  to  a  grouping  of  the  masses.  And 
obviously  a  like  result  would  eventually  take  place  with  the 
groups  thus  formed ;  until  they  at  length  aggregated  into  a 
single  mass. 

Leaving  the  region  of  speculative  astronomy,  let  us  con- 
sider the  Solar  System  as  it  at  present  exists.  And  here  it 
will  be  well,  in  the  first  place,  to  note  a  fact  which  may  be 
thought  at  variance  with  the  foregoing  argument — namely, 
the  still-continued  existence  of  Saturn's  rings  ;  and  especially 
of  the  internal  nebulous  ring  lately  discovered.  To  the 
objection  that  the  outer  rings  maintain  their  equilibrium,  the 
reply  is  that  the  comparatively  great  cohesion  of  liquid 
or  solid  substance  would  suffice  to  prevent  any  slight  tend- 
ency to  rupture  from  taking  effect.  And  that  a  nebulous 
ring  here  still  preserves  its  continuity,  does  not  really  negative 
the  foregoing  conclusion;  since  it  happens  under  the  quite 
exceptional  influence  of  those  symmetrically  disposed  forces 
which  the  external  rings  exercise  on  it.  Here  indeed 

it  deserves  to  be  noted,  that  though  at  first  sight  the  Satur- 
nian  system  appears  at  variance  with  the  doctrine  that  a 
state  of  homogeneity  is  one  of  unstable  equilibrium,  it  doe.- 
in  reality  furnish  a  (furious  confirmation  of  this  doctrine.  For 
Saturn  is  not  quite  concentric  with  his  rings ;  and  it  has 
been  proved  mathematically  that  were  he  and  his  rings  con- 
19  • 


410  THE    INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS. 

centrically  situated,  they]  could  not  remain  so  :  the  homo- 
geneous relation  being  unstable,  would  gravitate  into  a 
heterogeneous  one.  And  this  fact  serves  to  remind  us  of  the 
allied  one  presented  throughout  the  whole  Solar  System.  All 
orbits,  whether  of  planets  or  satellites,  are  more  or  less  ex- 
centric — none  of  them  are  perfect  circles;  and  were  thej 
perfect  circles  they  would  soon  become  ellipses.  Mutual  per- 
turbations would  inevitabty  generate  excentricities.  That  is 
to  say,  the  homogeneous  relations  would  lapse  into  hetero- 
geneous ones. 

§  151.  Already  so  many  references  have  been  made  to  the 
gradual  formation  of  a  crust  over  the  originally  incandescent 
Earth,  that  it  may  be  thought  superfluous  again  to  name  it. 
It  has  not,  however,  been  before  considered  in  connexion  with 
the  general  principle  under  discussion.  Here  then  it  must 
be  noted  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  instability  of  the 
homogeneous.  In  this  cooling  down  and  solidification  of 
the  Earth's  surface,  we  have  one  of  the  simplest,  as  well  as 
one  of  the  most  important,  instances,  of  that  change  from 
a  uniform  to  a  multiform  state  which  occurs  in  any  mass 
through  exposure  of  its  difierent  parts  to  difierent  condi- 
tions. To  the  differentiation  of  the  Earth's  exterior 
from  its  interior  thus  brought  about,  we  must  add  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  differentiations  which  the  exterior  itself 
afterwards  undergoes,  as  being  similarly  brought  about.  "Were 
the  conditions  to  which  the  surface  of  the  Earth  is  exposed, 
alike  in  all  directions,  there  would  be  no  obvious  reason  why 
certain  of  it^  parts  should  become  permanently^  unlike  the  rest. 
But  being  unequally  exposed  to  the  chief  external  centre  of 
force — the  Sun — its  main  divisions  become  unequally  modified: 
as  the  crust  thickens  and  cools,  there  arises  that  contrast, 
now  so  decided,  between  the  polar  and  equatorial  regions. 

Along  with  these  most  marked  physical  differentiations  of 
the  Earth,  which  are  manifestly  consequent  on  the  instability 
of  the  homogeneous,  there  have  been  going  on  numeroiw 


THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS.  411 

chemical  differentiations,  admitting  of  similar  interpreta- 
tion. Without  raising  the  question  whether,  as  some  think, 
the  so-called  simple  substances  are  themselves  compounded  of 
unknown  elements  (elements  which  we  cannot  separate  by 
artificial  heat,  but  which  existed  separately  when  the  heat  of 
the  Earth  was  greater  than  any  which  we  can  produce), — 
without  raising  this  question,  it  will  suffice  the  present  pur- 
pose to  show  how,  in  place  of  that  comparative  homogeneity 
of  the  Earth's  crust,  chemically  considered,  which  must  have 
existed  when  its  temperature  was  high,  there  has  arisen, 
during  its  cooling,  an  increasing  chemical  heterogeneity: 
each  element  or  compound,  being  unable  to  maintain  its 
homogeneity  in  presence  of  various  surrounding  affinities, 
having  fallen  into  heterogeneous  combinations.  Let  us  con- 
template this  change  somewhat  in  detail.  There  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  at  an  extreme  heat,  the  bodies 
we  call  elements  cannot  combine.  Even  under  such  heat  as 
can  be  generated  artificially,  some  very  strong  affinities  yield ; 
and  the  great  majority  of  chemical  compounds  are  decom- 
posed at  much  lower  temperatures.  Whence  it  seems  not 
improbable  that,  when  the  Earth  was  in  its  first  state  of  in- 
candescence, there  were  no  chemical  combinations  at  alL 
But  without  drawing  this  inference,  let  us  set  out  with  the 
unquestionable  fact  that  the  compounds  which  can  exist  at 
the  highest  temperatures,  and  which  must  therefore  have 
been  the  first  formed  as  the  Earth  cooled,  are  those  of  the 
simplest  constitutions.  The  protoxides — including  under 
that  head  the  alkalies,  earths,  &c. — are,  as  a  class,  the  most 
fixed  compounds  known :  the  majority  of  them  resisting  de- 
composition by  any  heat  we  can  generate.  These,  consisting 
severally  of  one  atom  of  each  component  element,  are  com- 
binations of  the  simplest  order — are  but  one  degree  less 
homogeneous  than  the  elements  themselves.  More  hetero- 
geneous than  these,  more  decomposable  by  heat,  and  therefore 
later  in  the  Earth's  history,  are  the  deutoxides,  tritoxides, 
peroxides,  &c. ;  in  which  two,  three,  four,  or  more  atoms  of 


412  THE    INSTABILITY   OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS, 

oxygen  are  united  with  one  atom  of  metal  or  other  base. 
Still  less  able  to  resist  beat,  are  tbe  salts ;  wbicb  present  us 
with  compound  atoms  each  made  up  of  five,  six,  seven,  eight, 
ten,  twelve,  or  more  atoms,  of  three,  if  not  more,  kinds. 
Then  there  are  the  hydrated  salts,  of  a  yet  greater  hetero- 
geneity, which  undergo  partial  decomposition  at  much  lower 
temperatures.  After  them  come  the  further-complicated 
supersalts  and  double  salts,  having  a  stability  again  decreased ; 
and  so  throughout.  After  making  a  few  unimportant  quali- 
fications demanded  by  peculiar  affinities,  I  believe  no  chemist 
will  deny  it  to  be  a  general  law  of  these  inorganic  combina- 
tions that,  other  things  equal,  the  stability  decreases  as  the 
complexity  increases.  And  then  when  we  pass  to  the  com- 
pounds that  make  up  organic  bodies,  we  find  this  general  law 
still  further  exemplified :  we  find  much  greater  complexity 
and  much  less  stability.  An  atom  of  albumen,  for  instance, 
consists  of  482  ultimate  atoms  of  five  different  kinds.  Fibrine, 
still  more  intricate  in  constitution,  contains  in  each  atom,  298 
atoms  of  carbon,  49  of  nitrogen,  2  of  sulphur,  228  of  hydrogen, 
and  92  of  oxygen — in  all,  660  atoms ;  or,  more  strictly 
speaking — equivalents.  And  these  two  substances  are  so  un- 
stable as  to  decompose  at  quite  moderate  temperatures ;  as 
that  to  which  the  outside  of  a  joint  of  roast  meat  is 
exposed.  Possibly  it  will  be  objected  that  some  inorganic 
compounds,  as  phosphuretted  hydrogen  and  chloride  of  nitro- 
gen, are  more  decomposable  than  most  organic  compounds. 
This  is  true.  But  the  admission  may  be  made  without  damage 
to  the  argument.  The  proposition  is  not  that  all  simple  com- 
binations are  more  fixed  than  all  complex  ones.  To  establish 
our  inference  it  is  necessary  only  to  show  that,  as  an  average 
factj  the  simple  combinations  can  exist  at  a  higher  tempera- 
ture than  the  complex  ones.  And  this  is  wholly  beyond 
question.  Thus  it  is  manifest  that  the  present  chemi- 

cal heterogeneity  of  the  Earth's  surface  has  arisen  by  degrees 
as  the  decrease  of  heat  has  permitted ;  and  that  it  has  shown 
itself  in  three  forms — first,  in  the  multiplication  of  chcmica] 


THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS.  4Kj 

compounds ;  second,  in  the  greater  number  of  different  ele- 
ments contained  in  tlie  more  modern  of  these  compounds  ;  and 
third,  in  the  higher  and  more  varied  multiples  in  which  these 
more  numerous  elements  combine. 

WithouT,  specifying  them,  it  will  suffice  just  to  name  the 
meteorologic  processes  eventually  set  up  in  the  Earth's  at- 
mosphere, as  further  illustrating  the  alleged  law.  They 
equally  display  that  destruction  of  a  homogeneous  state  which 
results  from  unequal  exposure  to  incident  forces. 

§  152.  Take  a  mass  of  unorganized  but  organizable  mat- 
ter— either  the  body  of  one  of  the  lowest  Kving  forms,  or  the 
geim  of  one  of  the  higher.  Consider  its  circumstances. 
Either  it  is  immersed  in  water  or  air,  or  it  is  contained  with- 
in a  parent  organism.  Wherever  placed,  however,  its  outer 
and  inner  parts  stand  differently  related  to  surrounding 
agencies — nutriment,  oxygen,  and  the  various  stimuli.  But 
this  is  not  all.  Whether  it  lies  quiescent  at  the  bottom  of 
the  water  or  on  the  leaf  of  a  plant ;  whether  it  moves  through 
the  water  preserving  some  definite  attitude ;  or  whether  it  is 
in  the  inside  of  an  adult ;  it  equally  results  that  certain  parts 
of  its  surface  are  more  exposed  to  surrounding  agencies  than 
other  parts — in  some  cases  more  exposed  to  light,  heat,  or 
oxygen,  and  in  others  to  the  maternal  tissues  and  their  con- 
tents. Hence  must  follow  the  destruction  of  its  original 
equilibrium.  This  may  take  place  in  one  of  two  ways.  Either 
the  disturbing  forces  may  be  such  as  to  overbalance  the 
affinities  of  the  organic  elements,  in  which  case  there  result 
those  changes  which  are  known  as  decomposition ;  or,  as  is 
ordinarily  the  case,  such  changes  are  induced  as  do  not  de- 
stroy the  organic  compounds,  but  only  modify  them  :  the 
parts  most  exposed  to  the  modifying  forces  being  most  modi- 
fied.    To  elucidate  this,  suppose  we  take  a  few  cases. 

Note  first  what  appear  to  be  exceptions.  Certain  minute 
animal  forms  present  us  either  with  no  appreciable  differen- 
tiations or  with  differentiations  so  obscure  as  to  be  made  out 


414  THE   INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS. 

with  great  diiEculty.  In  the  Ehizopods,  the  substance  of  the 
jelly-like  body  remains  throughout  life  unorganized,  even  to 
the  extent  of  haying  no  limiting  membrane ;  as  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  the  thread-like  processes  protruded  by  the  mass 
coalesce  on  touching  each  other.  Whether  or  not  the  nearh 
allied  Amceha^  of  which  the  less  numerous  and  more  bulky 
processes  do  not  coalesce,  has,  as  lately  alleged,  something 
like  a  cell- wall  and  a  nucleus,  it  is  clear  that  the  distinction 
of  parts  is  very  slight ;  since  particles  of  food  pass  bodily  into 
the  inside  through  any  part  of  the  periphery,  and  since  when 
the  creature  is  crushed  to  pieces,  each  piece  behaves  as  the 
whole  did.  Now  these  cases,  in  which  there  is  either  no  contrast 
of  structure  between  exterior  and  interior  or  very  little,  though 
seemingly  opposed  to  the  above  inference,  are  really  very 
significant  evidences  of  its  truth.  For  what  is  the  peculiarity 
of  this  division  of  the  Protozoa  ?  Its  members  undergo  per- 
petual and  irregular  changes  of  form— they  show  no  per- 
sistent relation  of  parts.  What  lately  formed  a  portion  of 
the  interior  is  now  protruded,  and,  as  a  temporary  limb,  is 
attached  to  some  object  it  happens  to  touch.  What  is  now  a 
part  of  the  surface  will  presently  be  drawn,  along  with  the 
atom  of  nutriment  sticking  to  it,  into  the  centre  of  the  mass. 
Either  the  relations  of  inner  and  outer  have  no  permanent 
existence,  or  they  are  very  slightly  marked.  But  by  the 
hypothesis,  it  is  only  because  of  their  unlike  positions  with 
respect  to  modifying  forces,  that  the  originally  like  units  of  a 
living  mass  become  unlike.  We  must  therefore  expect  no 
established  differentiation  of  parts  in  creatures  which  exhibit 
no  established  differences  of  position  in  their  parts ;  and  we 
must  expect  extremely  little  differentiation  of  parts  where  the 
differences  of  position  are  but  little  determined — whicli  is 
just  what  we  find.  This  negative  evidence  is  borne 

out  by  positive  evidence.  When  we  turn  from  these  pro- 
teiform  specks  of  living  jeUy  to  organisms  having  an  un  • 
changing  distribution  of  substance,  we  find  differences  of  tis- 
sue corresponding  to  differences  of  relative  position.     la  all 


THE   INSTABILITY    OF    THE    HOMOGENEOUS.  41  o 

the  higher  Protozoa^  as  also  in  the  Protophytay  we  meet  with 
a  fimdamental  differentiation  into  cell-membrane  and  cell- 
contents  ;  answering  to  that  fundamental  contrast  of  con- 
ditions implied  by  the  terms  outside  and  inside.  On 
passing  from  what  are  roughly  classed  as  unicellular  organ- 
isms, to  the  lowest  of  those  which  consist  of  aggregated  cells, 
we  equally  observe  the  connection  between  structural  differ- 
ences and  differences  of  circumstance.  Negatively,  we  see 
that  in  the  sponge,  permeated  throughout  by  currents  of  sea- 
water,  the  indefiniteness  of  organization  corresponds  with  the 
absence  of  definite  unlikeness  of  conditions :  the  peripheral 
and  central  portions  are  as  little  contrasted  in  structure  as  in 
exposure  to  surrounding  agencies.  While  positively,  we  see 
that  in  a  form  like  the  Thalassicolla,  which,  though  equally 
humble,  maintains  its  outer  and  inner  parts  in  permanently 
unlike  circumstances,  there  is  displayed  a  rude  structure 
obviously  subordinated  to  the  primary  relations  of  centre  and 
surface :  in  all  its  many  and  important  varieties,  the  parts 
exhibit  a  more  or  less  concentric  arrangement. 

After  this  primary  modification,  by  which  tlie  outer  tissues 
are  differentiated  from  the  inner,  the  next  in  order  of  con- 
stancy and  importance  is  that  by  which  some  part  of  the 
outer  tissues  is  differentiated  from  the  rest ;  and  this  corre- 
sponds with  the  almost  universal  fact  that  some  part  of  the 
outer  tissues  is  more  exposed  to  certain  environing  influences 
than  the  rest.  Here,  as  before,  the  apparent  exceptions  are 
extremely  significant.  Some  of  the  lowest  vegetal  organisms, 
as  the  Hematococci  and  Protococci,  evenly  imbedded  in  a 
mass  of  mucus,  or  dispersed  through  the  Arctic  snow,  display 
no  differentiations  of  surface ;  the  several  parts  of  their  sur  • 
faces  being  subjected  to  no  definite  contrasts  of  conditions*. 
Ciliated  spheres  such  as  the  Volvox  have  no  parts  of  the?i 
periphery  unlike  other  parts ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  they  should  have  ;  since,  as  they  revolve  in  all  directiongi, 
they  do  not,  in  traversing  the  water,  permanently  expose  anj* 
part  to  special  conditions.     But  when  we  come  to  organisms 


ilQ  THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS. 

that  are  either  fixed,  or  while  moTing  preserve  definite  atti- 
tudes, we  no  longer  find  •uniformity  of  surface.  The  most 
general  fact  which  can  be  asserted  with  respect  to  the  struc- 
tures of  plants  and  animals,  is,  that  howeycr  much  alike  in 
shape  and  texture  the  various  parts  of  the  exterior  may  at 
first  be,  they  acquire  unlikenesses  corresponding  to  the  un- 
likenesses  of  their  relations  to  surrounding  agencies.  The  cili- 
ated germ  of  a  Zoophyte,  which,  during  its  locomotive  stage, 
is  distinguishable  only  into  outer  and  inner  tissues,  no  sooner 
becomes  fixed,  than  its  upper  end  begins  to  assume  a  different 
structure  from  its  lower.  The  disc-shaped  gemmcB  of  the 
Marchantia,  originally  alike  on  both  surfaces,  and  falling  at 
random  with  either  side  uppermost,  immediately  begin  to 
develop  rootlets  on  the  under  side,  and  stornata  on  the  upper 
side  :  a  fact  proving  beyond  question,  that  this  primary  differ- 
entiation is  determined  by  this  fundamental  contrast  of  con- 
ditions. 

Of  course  in  the  germs  of  higher  organisms,  the  metamor- 
phoses immediately  due  to  the  instability  of  the  homogeneous, 
are  soon  masked  by  those  due  to  the  assumption  of  the  hered- 
itary type.  Such  early  changes,  however,  as  are  common  to 
all  classes  of  organisms,  and  so  cannot  be  ascribed  to  heredity, 
entirely  conform  to  the  hypothesis.  A  germ  which  has  un- 
dergone no  developmental  modifications,  consists  of  a  spher- 
oidal group  of  homogeneous  cells.  Universally,  the  first  step 
in  its  evolution  is  the  establishment  of  a  difference  between 
some  of  the  peripheral  cells  and  the  cells  which  form  the  in- 
terior— some  of  the  peripheral  cells,  after  repeated  sponta- 
neous fissions,  coalesce  into  a  membrane  ;  and  by  continuance 
of  the  process  this  membrane  spreads  until  it  speedily  invests 
the  entire  mass,  as  in  mammals,  or,  as  in  birds,  stops  short  of 
that  for  some  time.  Here  we  have  two  significant  facts. 
The  first  is,  that  the  primary  unlikcness  arises  between  the 
exterior  and  the  interior.  The  second  is,  that  the  change 
which  thus  initiates  development,  does  not  take  place  simul- 
taneously over   the  whole  exterior ;    but  commences  at  one 


THE    INSTABILITY   OF   TIIE    HOMOGENEOUS.  417 

place,  and  gradually  involves  the  rest.  J^ow  these  facts 
are  just  those  which  might  be  inferred  from  the  instability  of 
the  homogeneous.  The  surface  must,  more  than  any  other 
part,  become  unlike  the  centre,  because  it  is  most  dissimi- 
larly conditioned ;  and  all  parts  of  the  surface  cannot 
simultaneously  exhibit  this  differentiation,  because  they  can- 
not be  exposed  to  the  incident  forces  with  absolute  imifonn- 
ity.  One  other  general  fact  of  like  implication  re- 

mains. Whatever  be  the  extent  of  this  peripheral  layer  of 
cells,  or  blastoderm  as  it  is  called,  it  presently  divides  into 
two  layers — the  serous  and  mucous ;  or,  as  they  have  been 
otherwise  called,  the  ectoderm  and  the  endoderm.  The  first 
of  these  is  formed  from  that  portion  of  the  layer  which  lies 
in  contact  with  surrounding  agents  ;  and  the  second  of  them 
is  formed  from  that  portion  of  the  layer  which  lies  in  contact 
with  the  contained  mass  of  yelk.  That  is  to  say,  after  the 
primary  differentiation,  more  or  less  extensive,  of  surface 
from  centre,  the  resulting  superficial  portion  undergoes  a 
secondary  differentiation  into  inner  and  outer  parts — a 
differentiation  which  is  clearly  of  the  same  order  with  the 
preceding,  and  answers  to  the  next  most  marked  contrast  of 
conditions. 

But,  as  already  hinted,  this  principle,  imderstood  in  the 
simple  form  here  presented,  supplies  no  key  to  the  detailed 
phenomena  of  organic  development.  It  fails  entirely  to  ex- 
plain generic  and  specific  pecuKarities ;  and  indeed  leaves  us 
equally  in  the  dark  respecting  those  more  important  dis- 
tinctions by  which  families  and  orders  are  marked  out, 
"Why  two  ova,  similarly  exposed  in  the  same  pool,  should 
become  the  one  a  fish,  and  the  other  a  reptile,  it  cannot  tell 
us.  That  from  two  different  eggs  placed  under  the  same 
hen,  should  respectively  come  forth  a  duckling  and  a  chicken, 
is  a  fact  not  to  be  accounted  for  on  the  hypothesis  above 
developed.  We  have  here  no  alternative  but  to  fall  back 
upon  the  unexplained  principle  of  hereditary  transmission. 
The  capacity  possessed  by  an  unorganized  germ  of  unfolding 


418  THE   INSTABILITY    OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS 

into  a  complex  adult,  whicli  repeats  ancestral  traits  in  the 
minutest  details,  and  that  even  when  it  has  been  placed  in 
conditions  unlike  those  of  its  ancestors,  is  a  capacity  we  cannot 
at  present  understand.  That  a  microscopic  portion  of  seem- 
ingly structureless  matter  should  embody  an  influence  of  such 
Idnd,  that  the  resulting  man  will  in  fifty  years  after  become 
gouty  or  insane,  is  a  truth  which  would  be  incredible  were  it 
not  daily  illustrated.  Should  it  however  turn  out,  as 

we  shall  hereafter  find  reason  for  suspecting,  that  these  complex 
difierentiations  which  adults  exhibit,  are  themselves  the 
slowly  accumulated  and  transmitted  results  of  a  process  like 
that  seen  in  the  first  changes  of  the  germ  ;  it  will  follow  that 
even  those  embryonic  changes  due  to  hereditary  influence, 
are  remote  consequences  of  the  alleged  law.  Should  it  bo 
shown  that  the  slight  modifications  wrought  during  life  on 
each  adult,  and  bequeathed  to  ofispring  along  with  all  like 
preceding  modifications,  are  themselves  unlikenesses  of  parts 
that  are  produced  by  unlikenesses  of  conditions ;  then  it  will 
follow  that  the  modifications  displayed  in  the  course  of  em- 
bryonic development,  are  partly  direct  consequences  of  the 
instability  of  the  homogeneous,  and  partly  indirect  conse- 
quences of  it.  •  To  give  reasons  for  entertaining  this 
hypothesis,  however,  is  not  needful  for  the  justification  of  the 
position  here  taken.  It  is  enough  that  the  most  conspicuous 
difierentiations  which  incipient  organisms  universally  display, 
correspond  to  the  most  marked  difierences  of  conditions  to 
which  their  parts  are  subject.  It  is  enough  that  the  habitual 
contrast  between  outside  and  inside,  which  we  know  is  pro- 
duced in  inorganic  masses  by  unlikeness  of  exposure  to  inci- 
dent forces,  is  strictly  paralleled  by  the  first  contrast  that 
makes  its  appearance  in  all  organic  masses. 

It  remains  to  point  out  that  in  the  assemblage  of  organisms 
constituting  a  species,  the  principle  enunciated  is  equally 
traceable.  We  have  abundant  materials  for  the  induction 
that  each  species  will  not  remain  uniform,  but  is  ever  becom- 
ing to  some  extent  multiform ;  and  there  is  ground  for  the 


THE   INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS.  4|0 

deduction  that  this  lapse  from  homogeneity  to  heterogeneity  is 
caused  by  the  subjection  of  its  members  to  unlike  sets  of 
circumstances.  The  fact  that  in  every  species,  animal  and 
vegetal,  the  individuals  are  never  quite  alike ;  joined  with 
the  fact  that  there  is  in  every  species  a  tendency  to  the  pro- 
duction of  differences  marked  enough  to  constitute  varieties  ; 
form  a  sufficiently  wide  basis  for  the  induction.  While  the 
deduction  is  confirmed  by  the  familiar  experience  that  varieties 
are  most  numerous  and  decided  where,  as  among  cultivated 
plants  and  domestic  animals,  the  conditions  of  life  depart 
from  the  original  ones,  most  widely  and  in  the  most  numerous 
ways.  AYhether  we  regard  ''natural  selection"  as  wholly, 
or  only  in  part,  the  agency  through  which  tarieties  are 
established,  matters  not  to  the  general  conclusion.  For  as 
the  survival  of  any  variety  proves  its  constitution  to  be  in 
harmony  with  a  certain  aggregate  of  surrounding  forces — as 
the  multiplication  of  a  variety  and  the  usurpation  by  it  of  an 
area  previously  occupied  by  some  other  part  of  the  species, 
implies  different  effects  produced  by  such  aggregate  of  forces 
on  the  two,  it  is  clear  that  this  aggregate  of  forces  is  the 
real  cause  of  the  differentiation — it  is  clear  that  if  the  variety 
supplants  the  original  species  in  some  localities  but  not  in 
others,  it  does  so  because  the  aggregate  of  forces  in  the  one 
locality  is  unlike  that  in  the  other — it  is  clear  that  the  lapse 
of  the  species  from  a  state  of  homogeneity  to  a  state  of  hetero- 
geneity arises  from  the  exposure  of  its  different  parts  to 
different  aggregates  of  forces. 

§  153.  Among  mental  phenomena  it  is  difficult  to  estabhsh 
the  alleged  law  without  an  analysis  too  extensive  for  the 
occasion.  To  show  satisfactorily  how  states  of  consciousness, 
originally  homogeneous,  become  heterogeneous  through  dif- 
ferences in  the  changes  wrought  by  different  forces,  would 
require  us  carefully  to  trace  out  the  organization  of  early 
experiences.  Were  this  done  it  would  become  manifest  that 
the  development  of  intelligence,  is,  under  one  of  its  chief 


420  THE    INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS. 

aspects,  a  dividing  into  separate  classes,  the  unlike  things 
previously  confounded  together  in  one  class — a  formation  of 
sub-classes  and  sub- sub- classes,  until  the  once  confused  ag- 
gregate of  objects  known,  is  resolved  into  an  aggregate  which 
unites  extreme  heterogeneity  among  its  multiplied  groups, 
with  complete  homogeneity  among  the  members  of  each 
group.  If,  for  example,  we  followed,  through  ascending  grades 
of  creatures,  the  genesis  of  that  vast  structure  of  knowledge 
acquired  by  sight,  we  should  find  that  in  the  first  stage, 
where  eyes  suffice  for  nothiag  beyond  the  discrimination  of 
light  from  darkness,  the  only  possible  classifications  of  objects 
seen,  must  be  those  based  on  the  manner  in  which  light  is 
obstructed,  and  the  degree  in  which  it  is  obstructed.  We 
should  find  that  by  such  undeveloped  visual  organs,  the 
shadows  traversing  the  rudimentary  retina  would  be  merely 
distinguished  into  those  of  the  stationary  objects  which 
the  creature  passed  during  its  own  movements,  and  those 
of  the  moving  objects  which  came  near  the  creature  while 
it  was  at  rest;  and  that  so  the  extremely  general  clas- 
sification of  visible  things  into  stationary  and  moving,  would 
be  the  earliest  formed.  We  should  find  that  whereas  the 
simplest  ej^es  are  not  fitted  to  distinguish  between  an  obstruc- 
tion of  light  caused  by  a  small  object  close  to,  and  an  obstruc- 
tion caused  by  a  large  object  at  some  distance,  eyes  a  little 
more  developed  must  be  competent  to  such  a  distinction ; 
whence  must  result  a  vague  dijSerentiation  of  the  class  of 
moving  objects,  into  the  nearer  and  the  more  remote.  We 
should  find  that  such  further  improvements  in  vision  as  those 
which  make  possible  a  better  estimation  of  distances  by 
adjustment  of  the  optic  axes,  and  those  which,  through  en- 
largement and  subdivision  of  the  retina,  make  possible  the  dis- 
crimination 01  shapes,  must  have  the  effects  of  giving  greater 
definiteness  to  the  classes  already  formed,  and  of  sub-dividing 
these  into  smaller  classes,  consisting  of  objects  less  unlike.  And 
we  should  find  that  each  additional  refinement  of  the  percep- 
tive organs,  must  similarly  lead  to  a  multiplication  of  divisions 


THE    INSTABILITY    OF   TlIE   HOMOGENEOUS.  421 

aivd  a  sharpening  of  the  limits  of  each  division.  In  every  infant 
mijrht  be  traced  the  analofrous  transformation  of  a  confused 
aggregate  of  impressions  of  surrounding  objects,  not  recognized 
as  differing  in  their  distances,  sizes,  and  shapes,  into  separate 
classes  of  objects  unlike  each  other  in  these  and  various  other 
respects.  And  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  it  might  bo 
shown  that  the  change  from  this  first  indefinite,  incoherent 
and  comparatively  homogeneous  consciousness,  to  a  definite, 
coherent,  and  heterogeneous  one,  is  due  to  differences  in  the 
actions  of  incident  forces  on  the  organism.  These 

brief  indications  of  what  might  be  shown,  did  space  permit, 
must  here  suffice.  Probably  they  will  give  adequate  clue  to 
an  argument  by  which  each  reader  may  satisfy  himself  that 
the  course  of  mental  evolution  offers  no  exception  to  the 
general  law.  In  further  aid  of  such  an  argument,  I  will  here 
add  an  illustration  that  is  comprehensible  apart  from  the 
process  of  mental  evolution  as  a  whole. 

It  has  been  remarked  (I  am  told  by  Coleridge,  though  I 
have  been  unable  to  find  the  passage)  that  with  the  advance 
of  language,  w^ords  which  were  originally  alike  in  their 
meanings  acquire  unlike  meanings — a  change  which  ho 
expresses  by  the  formidable  word  "  desj^nonymization.'^ 
Among  indigenous  words  this  loss  of  equivalence  cannot 
be  clearly  shown ;  because  in  them  the  divergencies  of 
meaning  began  before  the  dawn  of  literature.  But  among 
words  that  have  been  coined,  or  adopted  from  other 
languages,  since  the  writing  of  books  commenced,  it  is 
demonstrable.  In  the  old  divines,  miscreant  is  used  in 
its  etymological  sense  of  unbeliever  ;  but  in  modern  speech  it 
has  entirely  lost  this  sense.  Similarly  with  evil-doer  and 
male/actor:  exactly  synonymous  as  these  are  by  derivation, 
they  are  no  longer  synonymous  by  usage :  by  a  malefactor 
we  now  understand  a  convicted  criminal,  which  is  far  from 
being  the  acceptation  of  evil-doer.  The  verb  produce,  bears  in 
Euclid  its  primary  meaning — to  prolo?i(/,  or  draw  out ;  but 
the  now  largely  developed  meanings  oi produce  have  little  in 


422  THE    INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS. 

common  with  the  meanings  of  prolong,  or  draw  out.  In  the 
Church  of  England  liturgy,  an  odd  effect  results  from  the 
occurrence  of  2^^(^'^Gnt  in  its  original  sense — to  come  before, 
instead  of  its  modern  specialized  sense — to  come  before  with  the 
effect  of  arresting.  But  the  most  conclusive  cases  are  those 
in  which  the  contrasted  words  consist  of  the  same  parts  differ- 
ently combined  ;  as  in  ^o  under  and  undergo.  "We  go  under 
a  tree,  and  we  undergo  a  pain.  But  though,  if  analytically 
considered,  the  meanings  of  these  expressions  would  be  the 
same  were  the  words  transposed,  habit  has  so  far  modified 
their  meanings  that  we  could  not  without  absurdity  speak  of 
undergoing  a  tree  and  going  under  a  pain.  Countless 

such  instances  might  be  brought  to  show  that  between  two 
words  which  are  originally  of  like  force,  an  equilibrium  can 
not  be  maintained.  Unless  they  are  daily  used  in  exactly 
equal  degrees,  in  exactly  similar  relations  (against  which 
there  are  infinite  probabilities),  there  necessarily  arises  a  habit 
of  associating  one  rather  than  the  other  with  particular  acts, 
or  objects.  Such  a  habit,  once  commenced,  becomes  confirm- 
ed;  and  gradually  their  homogeneity  of  meaning  disappears. 
In  each  individual  we  may  see  the  tendency  which  inevitably 
leads  to  this  result.  A  certain  vocabulary  and  a  certain  set 
of  phrases,  distinguish  the  speech  of  each  person :  each  per- 
son habitually  uses  certain  words  in  places  where  other  words 
are  habitually  used  by  other  persons ;  and  there  is  a  con- 
tinual recurrence  of  favourite  expressions.  This  inability  to 
maintain  a  balance  in  the  use  of  verbal  sjonbols,  which  cha- 
racterizes every  man,  characterizes,  by  consequence,  aggre- 
gates of  men  ;  and  the  desynonymization  of  words  is  the  ulti- 
mate efiect. 

Should  any  difficulty  be  felt  in  understanding  how  these 
mental  changes  exemplify  a  law  of  physical  transformations 
that  are  wrought  by  physical  forces,  it  will  disappear  on  con- 
templating acts  of  mind  as  nervous  functions.  It  will  be 
seen  that  each  loss  of  equilibrium  above  instanced,  is  a  loss  of 
functional  equality  between  some  two  elements  of  the  nervous 


THE    INSTABILITY   OF  THE   HOMOGENEOUS.  423 

dvstcm.  And  it  will  be  seen  that,  as  in  other  cases,  this  loss 
of  functional  equality  is  due  to  differences  in  the  incidence  of 
forces. 

§  154.  Masses  of  men,  in  common  with  aU  other  masses, 
show  a  like  proclivity  similarly  caused.  Small  combinations 
and  large  societies  equally  manifest  it ;  and  in  the  one,  as  in 
the  other,  both  governmental  and  industrial  differentiations 
are  initiated  by  it.  Let  us  glance  at  the  facts  under  these 
two  heads. 

A  business  partnership,  balanced  as  the  authorities  of  its 
members  may  theoretically  be,  practically  becomes  a  union  in 
which  the  authority  of  one  partner  is  tacitly  recognized  as 
greater  than  that  of  the  other  or  others.  Though  the  share- 
holders have  given  equal  powers  to  the  directors  of  their 
company,  inequalities  of  power  soon  arise  among  them ;  and 
usually  the  supremacy  of  some  one  director  grows  so  marked, 
that  his  decisions  determine  the  course  which  the  board  takes. 
Nor  in  associations  for  political,  charitable,  literary,  or  other 
purposes,  do  we  fail  to  find  a  like  process  of  division  into 
dominant  and  subordinate  parties ;  each  having  its  leader,  its 
members  of  less  influence,  and  its  mass  of  uninfluential  mem- 
bers. These  minor  instances  in  which  unorganized  groups  of 
men,  standing  in  homogeneous  relations,  may  be  watched 
gradually  passing  into  organized  groups  of  men  standing  in 
heterogeneous  relations,  give  us  the  key  to  social  inequalities. 
Barbarous  and  civilized  communities  are  alilce  characterized 
by  separation  into  classes,  as  well  as  by  separation  of  each 
class  into  more  important  and  less  important  units ;  and  this 
structure  is  manifestly  the  gradually-consolidated  result  of  a 
process  like  that  daily  exemplified  in  trading  and  other  com- 
binations. So  long  as  men  are  constituted  to  act  on  one  an- 
other, either  by  physical  force  or  by  force  of  character,  the 
struggles  for  supremacy  must  finally  be  decided  in  favour  ot 
some  one  ;  and  the  difference  once  commenced  must  tend  to 
Deoome  ever  more  marked.    Its  unstable  equilibrium  being  do- 


424  THE   INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS. 

Btro}ed,  the  uniform  must  gravitate  with  increasing  rapidity 
into  the  multiform.  And  so  supremacy  and  subordination 
must  establish  themselves,  as  we  see  they  do,  throughout  the 
whole  structure  of  a  society,  from  the  great  class- divisions 
pervading  its  entire  body,  down  to  village  cliques,  and  even 
down  to  every  posse  of  school-boys.  Probably  it  will 

be  objected  that  such  changes  result,  not  from  the  homoge- 
neity of  the  original  aggregations,  but  from  their  non-homo- 
geneity— from  certain  slight  differences  existing  among  their 
units  at  the  outset.  This  is  doubtless  the  proximate  cause. 
In  strictness,  such  changes  must  be  regarded  as  transforma- 
tions of  the  relatively  homogeneous  into  the  relatively  hetero- 
geneous. But  it  is  abundantly  clear  that  an  aggregation  of 
men,  absolutely  alike  in  their  endowments,  would  eventually 
undergo  a  similar  transformation.  For  in  the  absence  of 
perfect  uniformity  in  the  lives  severally  led  by  them — in 
their  occupations,  physical  conditions,  domestic  relations,  and 
trains  of  thought  and  feeling — there  must  arise  differences 
among  them ;  and  these  must  finally  initiate  social  differen- 
tiations. Even  inequalities  of  health  caused  by  accidents, 
must,  by  entailing  inequalities  of  *physical  and  mental  power, 
disturb  the  exact  balance  of  mutual  influences  among  the 
units;  and  the  balance  once  disturbed,  must  inevitably  be 
lost.  Whence,  indeed,  besides  seeing  that  a  body  of  men 
absolutely  homogeneous  in  their  governmental  relations,  must, 
like  all  other  homogeneous  bodies,  become  heterogeneous, 
we  also  see  that  it  must  do  this  from  the  same  ultimate  cause 
—unequal  exposure  of  its  parts  to  incident  forces. 

The  first  industrial  divisions  of  societies  are  much  more 
.obviously  due  to  unlikenesses  of  external  circumstances. 
Such  divisions  are  absent  until  such  unlikenesses  are  estab- 
lished. Nomadic  tribes  do  not  permanently  expose  any 
groups  of  their  members  to  special  local  conditions  ;  nor  does 
ft  stationary  tribe,  when  occujiying  only  a  small  area,  main- 
tain from  generation  to  generation  marked  contrasts  in  the 
local  conditions  of  its  members  ;  and  in  such  tribes  there  are 


THE   INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS.  425 

no  decided  economical  differentiations.  '  But  a  community 
wliicli,  growing  populous,  has  overspread  a  large  tract,  and 
has  hecome  so  far  settled  that  its  members  live  and  die  in  their 
respective  districts,  keeps  its  several  sections  in  different 
physical  circumstances  ;  and  then  they  no  longer  remain  alike 
in  their  occupations.  Those  who  live  dispersed  contimie  to 
hunt  or  cultivate  the  earth  ;  those  who  spread  to  the  sea-shore 
fall  into  maritime  occupations  ;  while  the  inhabitants  of  some 
spot  chosen,  perhaps  for  its  centrality,  as  one  of  periodical 
assemblage,  become  traders,  and  a  town  springs  up.  Each 
of  these  classes  undergoes  a  modification  of  character  conse- 
quent on  its  function,  and  better  fitting  it  to  its  function. 
Later  in  the  process  of  social  evolution  these  local  adapt- 
ations are  greatly  multiplied.  A  result  of  differences  in 
soil  and  climate,  is  that  the  rural  inhabitants  in  different 
parts  of  the  kingdom  have  their  occupations  partially  special- 
ized ;  and  become  respectively  distinguished  as  chiefly  pro- 
ducing cattle,  or  sheep,  or  wheat,  or  oats,  or  hops,  or  cyder. 
People  living  where  coal-fields  are  discovered  are  transform- 
ed into  colliers ;  Cornishmen  take  to  mining  because  Corn- 
wall is  metalliferous  ;  and  the  iron-manufacture  is  the  domi- 
nant industry  where  iron-stone  is  plentiful.  Liverpool 
has  assumed  the  office  of  importing  cotton,  in  consequence  of 
its  proximity  to  the  district  w^here  cotton  goods  are  made; 
and  for  analogous  reasons,  Hull  has  become  the  chief  port  at 
which  foreign  wools  are  brought  in.  Even  in  the  establish- 
ment of  breweries,  of  dye-works,  of  slate-quarries,  of  brick- 
yards, we  may  see  the  same  truth.  So  that  both  in  general 
and  in  detail,  the  specializations  of  the  social  organism  which 
characterize  separate  districts,  primarily  depend  on  local 
circumstances.  Those  divisions  of  labour  which  under  an- 
other aspect  were  interpreted  as  due  to  the  setting  up  of  motion 
in  the  directions  of  least  resistance  (§  80),  are  here  in- 
terpreted as  due  to  differences  in  tlie  incident  forces ;  and 
the  two  interpretations  are  quite  consistent  with  each 
other.     For  that  which  in  each  case  determines  the  direction 


426  THE    INSTABILITY   OF  THE   HOMOGENEOUS. 

of  least  resistance,  is  the  distribution  of  the  forces  to  be  over- 
come ;  and  hence  unlikenesses  of  distribution  in  separate 
localities,  entails  unlikenesses  in  the  course  of  human  action 
in  those  localities — entails  industrial  differentiations. 

§  155.  It  has  still  to  be  shown  that  this  general  truth  is 
demonstrable  a  priori.  We  have  to  prove  specifically  that 
the  instability  of  the  homogeneous  is  a  corollary  from  the 
persistence  of  force.  Already  this  has  been  tacitly  implied 
by  assigning  unlikeness  in  the  exposure  of  its  parts  to 
surrounding  agencies,  as  the  reason  why  a  uniform  mass  loses 
its  uniformity.  But  here  it  will  be  proper  to  expand  this 
tacit  implication  into  definite  proof. 

On  striking  a  mass  of  matter  with  such  force  as  either  to 
indent  it  or  make  it  fly  to  pieces,  we  see  both  that  the  blow 
afiects  difierently  its  different  parts,  and  that  the  difierences 
are  consequent  on  the  unlike  relations  of  its  parts  to  the 
force  impressed.  The  part  with  which  the  striking  body 
comes  in  contact,  receiving  the  whole  of  the  communicated 
momentum,  is  driven  in  towards  the  centre  of  the  mass. 
It  thus  compresses  and  tends  to  displace  the  more  centrally 
situated  portions  of  the  mass.  These,  however,  cannot  be 
compressed  or  thrust  out  of  their  places  without  pressing  on 
all  surrounding  portions.  And  when  the  blow  is  violent 
enough  to  fracture  the  mass,  we  see,  in  the  radial  dispersion 
of  its  fragments,  that  the  original  momentum,  in  being  dis- 
tributed throughout  it,  has  been  divided  into  numerous  minor 
momenta,  unlike  in  their  directions.  We  see  that  these  di- 
rections are  determined  by  the  positions  of  the  parts  with  re- 
spect to  each  other,  and  with  respect  to  the  point  of  impact. 
We  see  that  the  parts  are  difierently  afiected  by  the  disrup- 
tive force,  because  they  are  differently  related  to  it  in  their 
directions  and  attachments — that  the  effects  being  the  joint 
products  of  the  cause  and  the  conditions,  cannot  be  alike  in 
parts  which  are  differently  conditioned.  A  body  on 

which  radiant  heat  is  falling,  exemplifies  this  truth  stiU  more 


rVH   INSTABILITY   OF   THE   HOMOGENEOUS.  427 

clearly.  I'aking  tlie  simplest  case  (that  of  a  sphere)  we  see 
that  while  the  part  nearest  to  the  radiating  centre  receives 
the  rays  at  right  angles,  the  rays  strike  the  other  parts  of  the 
exposed  side  at  all  angles  from  90**  down  to  0".  Again,  the 
molecular  vibrations  propagated  through  the  mass  from  the 
surface  which  receives  the  heat,  must  proceed  inwards  at  an- 
gles dijffering  for  each  point.  Further,  the  interior  parts  of 
the  sphere  affected  by  the  vibrations  proceeding  from  all 
points  of  the  heated  side,  must  be  dissimilarly  affected  in  pro- 
portion as  their  positions  are  dissimilar.  So  that  whether 
they  be  on  the  recipient  area,  in  the  middle,  or  at  the  remote 
side,  the  constituent  atoms  are  all  thrown  into  states  of  vibra- 
tion more  or  less  unlike  each  other. 

But  now,  what  is  the  ultimate  meaning  of  the  conclusion 
that  a  uniform  force  produces  different  changes  throughout  a 
uniform  mass,  because  the  parts  of  the  mass  stand  in  different 
relations  to  the  force  ?  Fully  to  understand  this,  we  must 
contemplate  each  part  as  simultaneously  subject  to  other 
forces — those  of  gravitation,  of  cohesion,  of  molecular  motion, 
&c.  The  effect  wrought  by  an  additional  force,  must  be  a 
resultant  of  it  and  the  forces  already  in  action.  If  the  forces 
already  in  action  on  two  parts  of  any  aggregate,  are  different  in 
their  directions,  the  effects  produced  on  these  two  parts  by  like 
forces  must  be  different  in  their  directions.  "Why  must  they  be 
different  ?  They  must  be  different  because  such  unlikeness  as 
exists  between  the  two  sets  of  factors,  is  made  by  the  presence 
in  the  one  of  some  specially-directed  force  that  is  not  pre- 
sent in  the  other ;  and  that  this  force  will  produce  an 
effect,  rendering  the  total  result  in  the  one  case  unlike  that 
in  the  other,  is  a  necessary  corollary  from  the  persistence  of 
force.  Still  more  manifest  does  it  become  that  the  dis- 

similarly-placed parts  of  any  aggregate  must  be  dissimilarly 
modified  by  an  incident  force,  when  we  remember  that  the 
quantities  of  the  incident  force  to  which  they  are  severally 
subject,  are  not  equal,  as  above  supposed  ;  but  are  nearly  al- 
ways very  imequal.     The  outer  parts  of  masses  are  usually 


428  THB    INSTABILITY   OF   THE    HOMOGENEOUS. 

alone  exposed  to  chemical  actions;  and  not  only  are  their 
inner  parts  shielded  from  the  affinities  of  external  elements, 
but  such  affinities  are  brought  to  bear  imequally  on  their 
surfaces ;  since  chemical  action  sets  up  currents  through  the 
medium  in  which  it  takes  place,  and  so  brings  to  the  various 
parts  of  the  surface  unequal  quantities  of  the  active  agent. 
Again,  the  amounts  of  any  external  radiant  force  which  the 
different  parts  of  an  aggregate  receive,  are  widely  contrasted : 
we  have  the  contrast  between  the  quantity  falling  on  the 
side  next  the  radiating  centre,  and  the  quantity,  or  rather  no 
quantity,  falling  on  the  opposite  side ;  we  have  contrasts  in 
the  quantities  received  by  differently- placed  areas  on  the 
exposed  side;  and  we  have  endless  contrasts  between  the 
quantities  received  by  the  various  parts  of  the  interior.  Simi- 
larly when  mechanical  force  is  expended  on  any  aggregate, 
either  by  collision,  continued  pressure,  or  tension,  the  amounts 
of  strain  distributed  throughout  the  mass  are  manifestly 
unlike  for  unlike  positions.  But  to  say  the  different  parts  of 
an  aggregate  receive  different  quantities  of  any  incident  force, 
is  to  say  that  their  states  are*  modified  by  it  in  different 
degrees — is  to  say  that  if  they  were  before  homogeneous  in 
their  relations  they  must  be  rendered  to  a  proportionate 
extent  heterogeneous  ;  since,  force  being  persistent,  the 
different  quantities  of  it  falling  on  the  different  parts, 
must  work  in  them  different  quantities  of  effect — different 
changes.  Yet  one  more  kindred  deduction  is  required 

to  complete  the  argument.  We  may,  by  parallel  reasoning, 
reach  the  conclusion  that,  even  apart  from  the  action  of  any  ex- 
ternal force,  the  equilibrium  of  a  homogeneous  aggregate  must 
be  destroyed  by  the  imequal  actions  of  its  j)arts  on  each  other. 
That  mutual  influence  which  produces  aggregation  (not  to 
mention  other  mutual  influences)  must  work  different  effects 
on  the  different  parts ;  since  they  are  severally  exposed  to  it 
in  unlike  amounts  and  directions.  This  will  be  clearly  seen 
on  remembering  that  the  portions  of  which  the  whole  is  made 
up,  may  be  severally  regarded  as  minor  wholes ;  that  on  each  of 


THE    INSTABILITY    OF   TIIE    HOMOGENEOUS.  420 

these  minor  wholes,  the  action  of  the  entire  aggregate  then 
becomes  an  external  incident  force ;  that  such  external  inci- 
dent force  must,  as  above  shown,  work  unlike  changes  in  tho 
parts  of  any  such  minor  whole ;  and  that  if  the  minor  wholes 
are  severally  thus  rendered  heterogeneous,  the  entire  aggre- 
gate is  rendered  heterogeneous. 

The  instability  of  the  homogeneous  is  thus  deducible  from 
that  primordial  truth  which  underlies  our  intelligence.  One 
stable  homogeneity  only,  is  hypothetically  possible.  If  centres 
of  force,  absolutely  uniform  in  their  powers,  were  difiiised 
with  absolute  uniformity  through  unlimited  space,  they  would 
remain  in  equilibrium.  This  however,  though  a  verbally 
intelligible  supposition,  is  one  that  cannot  be  represented  in 
thought ;  since  unlimited  space  is  inconceivable.  But  all 
finite  forms  of  the  homogeneous — all  forms  of  it  which  we 
can  know  or  conceive,  must  inevitably  lapse  into  hetero- 
geneity. In  three  several  ways  does  the  persistence  of  force 
necessitate  this.  Setting  external  agencies  aside,  each  unit 
of  a  homogeneous  whole  must  be  differently  affected  from 
any  of  the  rest  by  the  aggregate  action  of  the  rest  upon  it. 
The  resultant  force  exercised  by  the  aggregate  on  each  imit, 
being  in  no  two  cases  alike  in  both  amount  and  direction,  and 
usually  not  in  either,  any  incident  force,  even  if  uniform  in 
amount  and  direction,  cannot  produce  like  effects  on  the  units. 
And  the  various  positions  of  the  parts  in  relation  to  any  in- 
cident force,  preventing  them  from  receiving  it  in  uniform 
amounts  and  directions,  a  further  difference  in  the  effects 
wrought  on  them  is  inevitably  produced. 

One  further  remark  is  needed.  To  the  conclusion  that 
the  changes  with  which  Evolution  comtnenccs,  are  thus  ne- 
cessitated, remains  to  be  added  the  conclusion  that  these 
changes  must  continue.  The  absolutely  homogeneous  must 
lose  its  equilibriimi ;  and  the  relatively  homogeneous  must 
lapse  into  the  relatively  less  homogeneous.  That  which 
is  true  of  any  total  mass,  is  true  of  the  parts  into  which 
it   segregates.      Tho   uniformity   of    each   such   part   must 


480  THE   INSTABILITY    OF   THE    HOMOGEJJEGOS. 

as  inevitably  be  lost  in  multiformity,  as  was  that  of  tbe 
original  whole  ;  and  for  like  reasons.  And  thus  the  continued 
changes  which  characterize  Evolution,  in  so  far  as  they  are 
constituted  by  the  lapse  of  the  homogeneous  into  the  hetero- 
geneous, and  of  the  less  heterogeneous  into  the  more  hetero- 
geneous, are  necessary  consequences  of  the  persistence  of 

£0706.. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE   MULTIPLICATION   OF   EFFECTS. 

§  156.  To  the  cause  of  increasing  complexity  set  forth  in 
the  last  chapter,  we  have  in  this  chapter  to  add  another. 
Though  secondary  in  order  of  time,  it  is  scarcely  secondary  in 
order  of  importance.  Even  in  the  absence  of  the  cause 
already  assigned,  it  would  necessitate  a  change  from  the 
homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous ;  and  joined  with  it,  it 
makes  this  change  both  more  rapid  and  more  involved.  To 
come  in  sight  of  it,  we  have  but  to  pursue  a  step  further, 
that  conflict  between  force  and  matter  already  delineated. 
Let  us  do  this. 

When  a  uniform  aggregate  is  subject  to  a  uniform  force, 
we  have  seen  that  its  constituents,  hieing  differently  condi- 
tioned, are  differently  modified.  But  while  we  have  con- 
templated the  various  parts  of  the  aggregate  as  thus  undergo- 
ing unlike  changes,  we  have  not  yet  conteniplated  the  unlike 
changes  simultaneously  produced  on  the  various  parts  of  the 
incident  force.  These  must  be  as  numerous  and  important  as 
the  others.  Action  and  re-action  being  equal  and  opposite,  it 
follows  that  in  difierentiating  the  parts  on  which  it  falls  in 
unlike  ways,  the  incident  force  must  itself  be  correspond- 
ingly differentiated.  Instead  of  being  as  before,  a  uniform 
force,  it  must  thereafter  be  a  multiform  force — a  group  of 
dissimilar  forces.  A  few  illustrations  will  make  this  truth 
manifest. 


432  THE   MULTIPLICATION   OF   EFFECTS. 

A  single  force  is  divided  by  conflict  with  matter  into 
forces  tliat  widely  diverge.  In  the  case  lately  cited,  of  a 
body  shattered  by  violent  collision,  besides  the  change  of  the 
homogeneous  mass  into  a  heterogeneous  group  of  scattered 
fragments,  there  is  a  change  of  the  homogeneous  momentum 
into  a  group  of  momenta,  heterogeneous  in  both  amounts 
and  directions.  Similarly  with  the  forces  we  know  as  light 
and  heat.  After  the  dispersion  of  these  by  a  radiating  body 
towards  all  points,  they  are  re-dispersed  towards  all  points 
by  the  bodies  on  which  they  fall.  Of  the  Sun's  rays,  issu- 
ing from  him  on  every  side,  some  few  strike  the  Moon. 
These  being  reflected  at  all  angles  from  the  Moon's  sur- 
face, some  few  of  them  strike  the  Earth.  By  a  like 
process  the  few  which  reach  the  Earth  are  again  dif- 
fused through  surrounding  space.  And  on  each  occasion, 
such  portions  of  the  rays  as  are  absorbed  instead  of  re- 
flected, undergo  refractions  that  equally  destroy  their 
parallelism.  More   than   this   is   true.     By   conflict 

with  matter,  a  uniform  force  is  in  part  changed  into  forces 
difiering  in  their  directions  ;  and  in  part  it  is  changed  into 
forces  difiering  in  their  kinds.  "When  one  body  is  struck 
against  another,  that  which  we  usually  regard  as  the  effect, 
is  a  change  of  position  or  motion  in  one  or  both  bodies.  But 
a  moment's  thought  shows  that  this  is  a  very  incomplete 
view  of  the  matter.  Besides  the  visible  mechanical  result, 
sound  is  produced ;  or,  to  speak  accurately,  a  vibration  in 
one  or  both  bodies,  and  in  the  surrounding  air :  and  under 
some  circumstances  we  call  this  the  effect.  Moreover,  the 
air  has  not  simply  been  made  to  vibrate,  but  has  had  currents 
raised  in  it  by  the  transit  of  the  bodies.  Further,  if  there  is 
not  that  great  structural  change  which  we  call  fracture,  there 
is  a  disarrangement  of  the  particles  of  the  two  bodies  around 
their  point  of  collision  ;  amounting  in  some  cases  to  a  visible 
condensation.  Yet  more,  this  condensation  is  accompanied 
by  disengagement  of  heat.  In  some  cases  a  spark — that  is, 
light — results,  from  the  incandescence  of  a   portion   struck 


THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFKCTS.  433 

off;  and  occasionally  this  incandescence  is  associated  with 
chemical  combination.  Thus,  by  the  original  mechanical 
force  expended  in  the  collision,  at  least  five,  and  often  more, 
different  kinds  of  forces  have  been  produced.  Take,  again, 
the  lighting  of  a  candle.  Primarily,  this  is  a  chemical 
change  consequent  on  a  rise  of  temperature.  The  process  of 
combination  having  once  been  set  going  by  extraneous  heat, 
there  is  a  continued  formation  of  carbonic  acid,  water,  &c. — 
in  itself  a  result  more  complex  than  the  extraneous  heat  that 
first  caused  it.  But  along  with  this  process  of  combination 
there  is  a  production  of  heat ;  there  is  a  production  of  light ; 
there  is  an  ascending  column  of  hot  gases  generated  ;  there 
are  currents  established  in  the  surrounding  air.  Nor  docH 
the  decomposition  of  one  force  into  many  forces  end  here. 
Each  of  the  several  changes  worked  becomes  the  parent  of 
further  changes.  The  carbonic  acid  formed,  will  by  and  by 
combine  with  some  base  ;  or  under  the  influence  of  sunshine 
give  up  its  carbon  to  the  leaf  of  a  plant.  The  water  will 
modify  the  hygrometric  state  of  the  air  aromid ;  or,  if  the 
current  of  hot  gases  containing  it  come  against  a  cold  body, 
will  be  condensed:  altering  the  temperature,  and  perhaps 
the  chemical  state,  of  the  surface  it  covers.  The  heat  given 
out  melts  the  subjacent  tallow,  and  expands  whatever  it 
warms.  The  light,  falling  on  various  substances,  calls  forth 
from  them  reactions  by  which  it  is  modified ;  and  so  divert 
colours  are  produced.  Similarly  even  with  these  secondary 
actions,  which  may  be  traced  out  into  ever- multiplying 
ramifications,  until  they  become  too  minute  to  be  appreci- 
ated. Universally,  then,  the  effect  is  more  complex 
than  the  cause.  Whether  the  aggregate  on  which  it  falls  be 
homogeneous  or  otherwise,  ap^tficfdent  force  is  transformed 
by  the  conflict  into  a  number  of  forces  that  differ  in  their 
amounts,  or  directions,  or  kinds ;  or  in  all  these  respects. 
And  of  this  group  of  variously-modified  forces,  each  ulti- 
mately undergoes  a  Kke  transformation. 

Let  us  now  mark  how  the  process  of  evolution  is  furthered 
20 


iSi  THE    MULTIPLICATION      OF    EFFECTS. 

by  this  multiplication  of  effects.  An  incident  force  decom« 
posed  by  the  reactions  of  a  body  into  a  group  of  u  alike  forces 
— a  uniform  force  tbus  reduced  to  a  multiforrja  force — be- 
comes tbe  cause  of  a  secondary  increase  of  m.ultiforiuity  in 
the  body  which  decomposes  it.  In  the  last  chapter  we  saw 
that  the  several  parts  of  an  aggregate  are  differently  modi- 
fied by  any  incident  force.  It  has  just  been  shown  that  by  the 
reactions  of  the  differently  modified  parts,  the  incident  force 
itself  must  be  divided  into  differently  modified  part^.  Here 
it  remains  to  point  out  that  each  differentiated  division  of 
the  aggregate,  thus  becomes  a  centre  from  which  a  differen- 
tiated division  of  the  original  force  is  again  diffused.  And 
since  unlike  forces  must  produce  unlike  results,  each  of  these 
differentiated  forces  must  produce,  throughout  the  aggregate, 
a  further   series  of  differentiations.  This  secondary 

cause  of  the  change  from  homogeneity  to  heterogeneity, 
obviously  becomes  more  potent  in  proportion  as  the  hetero- 
geneity increases.  When  the  parts  into  which  any  evolving 
whole  has  segregated  itself,  have  diverged  widely  in  nature, 
they  will  necessarily  react  very  diversely  on  any  incident 
force — they  will  divide  an  incident  force  into  so  many 
strongly  contrasted  groups  of  forces.  And  each  of  them  be- 
coming the  centre  of  a  quite  distinct  set  of  influences,  must 
add  to  the  number  of  distinct  secondary  changes  wrought 
throughout  the   aggregate.  Yet    another   corollary 

must  be  added.  The  number  of  unlike  parts  of  which  an 
ajrcrreirate  consists,  as  well  as  the  deorree  of  their  unlikeness, 
is  an  important  factor  in  the  process.  Every  additional 
specialized  division  is  an  additional  centre  of  specialized 
forces.  If  a  uniform  whole,  in  being  itself  made  multiform 
by  an  incident  force,  makes  the  incident  force  multiform  ;  if 
a  whole  consisting  of  two  unlike  sections,  divides  an  incident 
force  into  two  unlHie  groups  of  multiform  forces  ;  it  is  clear 
that  each  new  unlike  section  must  be  a  further  source  of  com- 
plication among  the  forces  at  work  throughout  the  mass— a 
further   source    of    heterogeneity.       The   multiplication  of 


THE   MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS.  435 

effects  must  proceed  in  geometrical  progression.     Each  stage 
of  evolution  must  initiate  a  higher  stage. 

8  157.  The  force  of  aggregation  acting  on  irregular  masses 
of  rare  matter,  difiused  through  a  resisting  medium,  will  not 
cause  such  masses  to  move  in  straight  lines  to  their  common 
centre  of  gravity ;  but,  as  before  said,  each  will  take  a  curvi- 
linear patii,  directed  to  one  or  other  side  of  the  centre  of 
gravity.  All  of  them  being  differently  conditioned,  gravita- 
tion will  impress  on  each  a  motion  differing  in  direction,  in 
velocity,  and  in  the  degree  of  its  curvature — uniform  aggre- 
gative force  will  be  differentiated  into  multiform  momenta. 
The  process  thus  commenced,  must  go  on  tUL  it  produces  a 
single  mass  of  nebulous  matter ;  and  these  independent  curvi- 
linear motions  must  result  in  a  movement  of  this  mass  round 
its  axis  :  a  simultaneous  condensation  and  rotation  in  which 
we  see  how  two  effects  of  the  aggregative  force,  at  first  but 
slightly  divergent,  become  at.  last  widely  differentiated.  A 
gradual  increase  of  oblateness  in  this  revolving  spheroid,  must 
take  place  through  the  joint  action  of  these  two  forces,  as  tho 
bulk  diminishes  and  the  rotation  grows  more  rapid  ;  and  this 
we  may  set  down  as  a  third  effect.  The  genesis  of  heat,  which 
must  accompany  augmentation  of  density,  is  a  consequence 
of  yet  another  order — a  consequence  by  no  means  simple ; 
since  the  various  parts  of  the  mass,  being  variously  condensed, 
must  be  variously  heated.  Acting  throughout  a  gaseous 
spheroid,  of  which  the  parts  are  unlike  in  their  temperatures, 
the  forces  of  aggregation  and  rotation  must  work  a  further 
series  of  changes :  they  must  set  up  circulating  currents, 
both  general  and  local.  At  a  later  stage  light  as  well  as  heat 
will  be  generated.  Thus  -svdthout  dwelling  on  the  likelihood 
of  chemical  combinations  and  electric  disturbances,  it  is  suf- 
ficiently manifest  that,  supposing  matter  to  have  originally 
existed  in  a  difiused  state,  the  once  uniform  force  which 
caused  its  aggregation,  must  have  become  gradually  divided 
into  different  forces  ;  and  that  each  further  stage  of  compli- 


436  THE   MULTIPLICATION   OF   EFFECTS. 

cation  in  the  resulting  aggregate,  must  have  initiated  furthet 
subdivisions  of  this  force — a  further  multiplication  of  effects, 
increasing  the  previous  heterogeneity. 

This  section  of  the  argument  may  however  be  adequately 
sustained,  without  having  recourse  to  any  such  hypothetical 
illustrations  as  the  foregoing.  The  astronomical  attributes 
of  the  Earth,  will  even  alone  suffice  our  purpose.  Consider 
first  the  effects  of  its  momentum  round  its  axis.  There  is  the 
oblateness  of  its  form ;  there  is  the  alternation  of  day  and 
night ;  there  are  certain  constant  marine  currents ;  and 
there  are  certain  constant  aerial  currents.  Consider  next 
the  secondary  series  of  consequences  due  to  the  divergence 
of  the  Earth's  plane  of  rotation  from  the  plane  of  its  orbit. 
The  many  differences  of  the  seasons,  both  simultaneous 
and  successive,  which  pervade  its  surface,  are  thus  caused. 
External  attraction  acting  on  this  rotating  oblate  spheroid 
with  inclined  axis,  produces  the  motion  called  limitation,  and 
that  slower  and  larger  one  from  which  follows  the  precession  of 
the  equinoxes,  with  its  several  sequences.  And  then  by  this 
same  force  are  generated  the  tides,  aqueeus  and  atmospheric. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  simplest  way  of  showing  the  multi- 
plication of  effects  among  phenomena  of  this  order,  will  be  to 
set  down  the  influences  of  any  member  of  the  Solar  System  on 
the  rest.  A  planet  directly  produces  in  neighbouring  planets 
certain  appreciable  perturbations,  complicating  those  other- 
wise produced  in  them  ;  and  in  the  remoter  planets  it  directly 
produces  certain  less  visible  perturbations.  Here  is  a  first 
series  of  effects.  But  each  of  the  perturbed  planets  is  itself  a 
source  of  perturbations — each  directly  affects  all  the  others. 
Hence,  planet  A  having  drawn  planet  B  out  of  the  position 
it  would  have  occupied  in  A's  absence,  the  perturbations 
which  B  causes  are  different  from  what  they  would  else 
have  been  ;  and  similarly  with  C,  D,  E,  &c.  Here  then  is  a 
secondary  series  of  effects  :  far  more  numerous  though  far 
smaller  in  their  amounts.  As  these  indirect  perturbations 
must  to  some  extent  modify  the  movements  of  each  planet, 


THE    MULTIPLICATION   OF   EFFECTS.  437 

there  results  from  tliem  a  tertiary  series  ;  and  so  on  contin- 
ually. Thus  the  force  exercised  by  any  planet  works  a  dif- 
ferent effect  on  each  of  the  rest ;  this  different  effect  is  from 
each  as  a  centre  partially  broken  up  into  minor  different 
effects  on  the  rest ;  and  so  on  in  ever  multipMng  and  dimin- 
ishing waves  throughout  the  entire  system. 

§  153.  If  tho  Earth  was  formed  by  the  concentration  of 
diffused  matter,  it  must  at  first  have  been  incandescent ;  and 
whether  the  nebjilar  h;y^othesis  be  accepted  or  not,  this  ori- 
ginal incandescence  of  the  Earth  must  now  be  regarded  as  in- 
ductively established — or,  if  not  established,  at  least  rendered 
60  probable  that  it  is  a  generally  admitted  geological  doctrine. 
Several  results  of  the  gradual  cooling  of  the  Earth — as  the 
formation  of  a  crust,  the  solidification  of  sublimed  elements, 
the  precipitation  of  water,  &c.,  have  been  already  noticed — 
and  I  here  again  refer  to  them  merely  to  point  out  that  they 
are  simultaneous  effects  of  the  one  cause,  diminishing  heat. 
Let  us  now,  however,  observe  the  multiplied  changes  afterwards 
arising  from  the  continuance  of  this  one  cause.  The 

Earth,  falling  in  temperature,  must  contract.  Ilence  the  solid 
crust  at  any  time  existing,  is  presently  too  large  for  tho 
shrinking  nucleus ;  and  being  unable  to  support  itself,  inevit- 
ably follows  the  nucleus.  But  a  spheroidal  envelope  cannot 
sink  down  into  contact  with  a  smaller  internal  spheroid,  with- 
out disruption :  it  will  run  into  wrinkles,  as  the  rind  of  an 
apple  does  when  the  bulk  of  its  interior  decreases  from  eva- 
poration. As  the  cooling  progresses  and  the  envelope  thick- 
ens, the  ridges  consequent  on  these  contractions  must  become 
greater  ;  rising  ultimately  into  hills  and  mountains  ;  and  the 
later  systems  of  mountains  thus  produced  must  not  only  bo 
higher,  as  we  find  them  to  be,  but  they  must  be  longer,  as  we 
also  find  them  to  be.  Thus,  leaving  out  of  view  other  modi- 
fying forces,  we  see  what  immense  heterogeneity  of  surface 
arises  from  the  one  cause,  loss  of  heat — a  heterogeneity  which 
the  telescope  shows  us  to  be  paralleled  on  the  Moon,  where  aque- 


438  THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS. 

ous  and  atmospheric  agencies  have  been  absent.  But 

we  have  yet  to  notice  another  kind  of  heterogeneity  of 
surface,  simiUrly  and  simultaneously  caused.  While  the 
Earth's  crust  was  still  thin,  the  ridges  produced  by  its  con- 
traction must  not  only  have  been  small,  but  the  tracts  between 
them  must  have  rested  with  comparative  smoothness  on  the 
subjacent  liquid  spheroid ;  and  the  water  in  those  arctic  and 
antarctic  regions  where  it  first  condensed,  must  have  been 
evenly  distributed.  But  as  fast  as  the  crust  grew  thicker 
and  gained  corresponding  strength,  the  lines^of  fracture  from 
time  to  time  caused  in  it,  necessarily  occurred  at  greater  dis- 
tances apart ;  the  intermediate  surfaces  followed  the  contract- 
ing nucleus  with  less  uniformity ;  and  there  consequently 
resulted  larger  areas  of  land  and  water.  If  any  one,  after 
wrapping  an  orange  in  wet  tissue  paper,  and  observing  both 
how  small  are  the  wrinkles  and  how  evenly  the  intervening 
spaces  lie  on  the  surface  of  the  orange,  will  then  wrap  it  in 
tliick  cartridge-paper,  and  note  both  the  greater  height  of  the 
ridges  and  the  larger  spaces  throughout  which  the  paper  does 
not  touch  the  orange,  he  will  realize  the  fact,  that  as  the 
Earth's  solid  envelope  thickened,  the  areas  of  elevation  and 
depression  became  greater.  In  place  of  islands  more  or  less 
homogeneously  scattered  over  an  all-embracing  sea,  there  must 
have  gradually  arisen  heterogeneous  arrangements  of  conti- 
nent and  ocean,  such  as  we  now  know.  This  double 
change  in  the  extent  and  in  the  elevation  of  the  lands,  in- 
volved yet  another  species  of  heterogeneity — that  of  coast-line. 
A  tolerably  even  surface  raised  out  of  the  ocean  will  have  a 
simple,  regular  sea -margin  ;  but  a  surface  varied  by  table- 
lands and  intersected  by  mountain- chains,  will,  when  raised 
out  of  the  ocean,  have  an  outline  extremely  irregular,  alike 
in  its  leading  features  and  in  its  details.  Thus  endless  is  the 
accumulation  of  geological  and  geographical  results  slowly 
brought  about  by  this  one  cause — the  escape  of  the  Earth's 
primitive  heat. 

When  we  pass  from  the  agency  which  geologists  term  ig- 


THE   MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS.  431) 

neous,  to  aqueous  and  atmosplieric  agencies,  we  see  a  like 
ever-growing  complication  of  effects.     The  denuding  actions 
of  air  and  water  have,  from  the  beginning,  been  modifying 
every  exposed  surface :  everywhere  working  many  different 
changes.    As  already  shown  (§  69)  the  original  source  of  those 
gaseous  and  fluid  motions  which  effect  denudation,  is  the  solar 
heat.     The  transformation  of  this  into  various  modes  of  force, 
according  to  the  nature  and  condition  of  the  matter  on  whicli 
it  falls,  is  the  first  stage  of  complication.     The  sun's  rays, 
striking  at  all  angles  a  sphere,  that  from  moment  to  moment 
presents  and  withdraws  different  parts  of  its  surface,  and  each 
of  them  for  a  different  time  daily  throughout  the  year,  would 
produce  a  considerable  variety  of  changes  even  were  the 
sphere  uniform.     But  falling  as  they  do  on  a  sphere  sur- 
rounded by  an  atmosphere  in  some  parts  of  which  wide  areas 
of  cloud  are  suspended,  and  which  here  unveQs  vast  tracts  of 
sea,  there  of  level  land,  there  of  mountains,  there  of  snow  and 
ice,  they  initiate  in  its  several  parts  countless  different  move- 
ments.   Currents  of  air  of  all  sizes,  directions,  velocities,  and 
temperatures,  are  set  up ;  as  axe  also  marine  currents  simi- 
larly contrasted  in  their  characters.     In  this  region  the  sur- 
face is  giving  off  water  in  the  state  of  vapour  ;  in  that,  dew 
is  being  precipitated  ;  and  in  the  other  rain  is  descending — 
differences  that  arise  from  the  ever-changing  ratio  between 
the  absorption  and  radiation  of  heat  in  each  place.     At  one 
hour,  a  rapid  fall  in  temperature  leads  to  the  formation  of  ice, 
with    an    accompanying    expansion   throughout  the   moist 
bodies  frozen ;  while  at  another,  a  thaw  unlocks  the  dislocated 
fragments  of  these  bodies.     And  then,  passing  to  a  second 
stage  of  complication,  we  see  that  the  many  kinds  of  motion 
directly  or  indirectly  caused  by  the  sun's  rays,  severally  pro- 
duce  results  that  vary   with   the   conditions.      Oxidation, 
drought,  wind,  frost,  rain,  glaciers,  rivers,  waves,  and  other 
denuding  agents  effect  disintegrations  that  are  determined  in 
their  amounts  and  qualities  by  local  circumstances.     Acting 
apon  a  tract  of  granite,  such  agents  here  work  Bcarcely  an 


440  THE    MULTIPLlCAl ION    OF    EFFECTS. 

appreciable  effect ;  there  cause  exfoliations  of  the  surface,  ttiul 
a  resulting  heap  of  debris  and  boulders  ;  and  elsewhere,  after 
decomposing  the  feldspar  into  a  white  clay,  carry  away  this 
with  the  accompanying  quartz  and  mica,  and  deposit  them 
in  separate  beds,  fluyiatile  and  marine.  When  the  exposed 
land  consists  of  several  unlike  formations,  sedimentary  and 
igneous,  changes  proportionably  more  heterogeneous  are 
wrought.  The  formations  being  disintegrable  in  different  de- 
grees, there  foUow^s  an  increased  irregularity  of  surface.  The 
areas  drained  by  different  rivers  being  differently  constituted, 
these  rivers  carry  down  to  the  sea  unlike  combinations  of 
ingredients ;  and  so  sundry  new  strata  of  distinct  composition 
arise.  And  here  indeed  we  may  see  very  simply  illustrated, 
the  truth,  that  the  heterogeneity  of  the  effects  increases  in  a 
geometrical  progression,  with  the  heterogeneity  of  the  object 
acted  upon.  A  continent  of  complex  structure,  presenting 
many  strata  irregularly  distributed,  raised  to  various  levels, 
tilted  up  at  all  angles,  must,  under  the  same  denuding  agen- 
cies, give  origin  to  immensely  multiplied  results  :  each  dis- 
trict must  be  peculiarly  modified ;  each  river  must  carry 
down  a  distinct  kind  of  detritus ;  each  deposit  must  be  differ- 
ently distributed  by  the  entangled  currents,  tidal  and  other, 
which  wash  the  contorted  shores  ;  and  every  additional  com  • 
plication  of  surface  must  be  the  cause  of  more  than  one  ad- 
ditional consequence.  But  not  to  dwell  on  these,  let  us, 
for  the  fuller  elucidation  of  this  truth  in  relation  to  the  inor- 
ganic world,  consider  what  would  presently  follow  from  some 
extensive  cosmical  revolution — say  the  subsidence  of  Central 
America.  The  immediate  results  of  the  disturbance  would 
themselves  be  sufficiently  complex.  Besides  the  numberless 
dislocations  of  strata,  the  ejections  of  igneous  matter,  the 
propagation  of  earthquake  vibrations  thousands  of  miles 
around,  the  loud  explosions,  and  the  escape  of  gases,  there 
would  be  the  rush  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans  to  sup- 
ply the  vacant  space,  the  subsequent  recoil  of  enormous 
waves,  which  w^ould  traverse  both  these  oceans  and  produce 


THE   MTJLTrPLlCATION    OF   EFFECTS.  4dl 

myriads  of  ^changes  along  their  shores,  the  corresponding  at- 
mospheric waves  complicated  by  the  currents  surrounding  each 
volcanic  vent,  and  the  electrical  discharges  with  which  such 
disturbances  are  accompanied.  But  these  temporary  effects 
would  be  insignificant  compared  with  the  permanent  ones. 
The  complex  currents  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  would  bo 
altered  in  directions  and  amounts.  The  distribution  of  heat 
achieved  by  these  currents  would  be  different  from  what  it  is. 
The  arrangement  of  the  isothermal  lines,  not  only  on  the 
neighbouring  continents,  but  even  throughout  Europe,  would 
be  changed.  The  tides  would  flow  differently  from  what 
they  do  now.  There  would  be  more  or  less  modification  of 
the  winds  in  their  periods,  strengths,  directions,  qualities. 
Rain  would  fall  scarcely  anywhere  at  the  same  times  and  in 
the  same  quantities  as  at  present.  In  short,  the  meteorolo- 
gical conditions  thousands  of  miles  off,  on  all  sides,  would  be 
more  or  less  revolutionized.  In  these  many  changes,  each  of 
which  comprehends  countless  minor  ones,  the  reader  will  see 
the  immense  heterogeneity  of  the  residts  wrought  out  by  one 
force,  when  that  force  expends  itself  on  a  previously  compli- 
cated area ;  and  he  will  readily  draw  the  corollary  that  from 
the  beginning  the  complication  has  advanced  at  an  increasing 
rate. 

§  159.  We  have  next  to  tracd  throughout  organic  evolu 
tion,  this  same  all- pervading  principle.  And  here,  wliere 
the  transformation  of  the  homogeneous  into  the  heterogeneous 
was  first  observed,  tho  production  of  many  changes  by  one 
cause  is  least  easy  to  demonstrate.  The  development  of  a  seed 
into  a  plant,  or  an  ovum  into  an  animal,  is  so  gradual ;  while 
the  forces  which  determine  it  are  so  involved,  and  at  the  same 
time  so  unobtrusive  ;  that  it  is  difficult  to  detect  the  multipli- 
cation of  effects  which  is  elsewhere  so  obvious.  Nevertheless, 
by  indirect  evidence  we  may  establish  our  proposition  ;  spite 
of  the  lack  of  direct  evidence. 

Observe,  first,  how  numerous  are  the  changes  which  any 


4,4i{  THE   MULTIPLICATION  OF   EFFECTS. 

marked  stimulus  works  on  an  adult  organism — a  human  being, 
for  instance.  An  alarming  sound  or  sight,  besides  impressions 
on  the  organs  of  sense  and  the  nerves,  may  produce  a  start,  a 
scream,  a  distortion  of  the  face,  a  trembling  consequent  on 
general  muscular  relaxation,  a  burst  of  perspiration,  an  excited 
action  of  the  heart,  a  rush  of  blood  to  the  brain,  followed 
possibly  by  arrest  of  the  heart's  action  and  by  syncope  ;  and 
if  the  system  be  feeble,  an  illness  with  its  long  train  of 
complicated  symptoms  may  set  in.  Similarly  in  cases  of 
disease.  A  minute  portion  of  the  small-pox  virus  introduced 
into  the  system,  will,  in  a  severe  case,  cause,  during  the  first 
stage,  rigors,  heat  of  skin,  accelerated  pulse,  furred  tongue, 
loss  of  appetite,  thirst,  epigastric  uneasiness,  vomiting,  head- 
ache, pains  in  the  back  and  limbs,  muscular  weakness,  con- 
vulsions, delirium,  &c.  ;  in  the  second  stage,  cutaneous  erup- 
tion, itching,  tingling,  sore  throat,  swelled  fauces,  salivation, 
cough,  hoarseness,  dyspnoea,  &c. ;  and  in  the  third  stage, 
oedematous  inflammations,  pneumonia,  pleurisy,  diarrhoea, 
inflammation  of  the  brain,  ophthalmia,  erysipelas,  &c. :  each 
of  which  enumerated  symptoms  is  itself  more  or  less  complex. 
Medicines,  special  foods,  better  air,  might  in  like  manner  be 
instanced  as  producing  multiplied  results.  Now  it 

needs  only  to  consider  th-at  the  many  changes  thus  wrought 
by  one  force  on  an  adult  organism,  must  be  partially  paral- 
leled in  an  embryo-organism,  to  understand  how  here  also 
the  production  of  many  efiects  by  one  cause  is  a  source  of 
increasing  heterogeneity.  The  external  heat  and  other 
agencies  which  determine  the  first  complications  of  the  germ, 
will,  by  acting  on  these,  superinduce  further  complications  ; 
on  these  still  higher  and  more  numerous  ones ;  and  so  on 
continually :  each  organ  as  it  is  developed,  serving,  by  its 
actions  and  reactions  on  the  rest,  to  initiate  new  complexities. 
The  first  pulsations  of  the  foetal  heart  must  simultaneously 
aid  the  unfolding  of  every  part.  The  growth  of  each  tissue, 
by  taking  from  the  blood  special  proportions  of  elements, 
must  modify  the  constitution   of  the   blood ;  and   so   must 


THE    MULTIPLlCATinN    OF    EFFECTS.  44*J 

modify  the  nutrition  of  all  the  other  tissues.  The  distributive 
actions,  implying  as  they  do  a  certain  waste,  necessitate  an 
addition  to  the  blood  of  effete  matters,  which  must  influence 
the  rest  of  the  system,  and  perhaps,  as  some  think,  initiate 
the  formation  of  excretory  organs.  The  nervous  connections 
established  among  the  viscera  must  further  multiply  their 
mutual  influences.  And  so  with  every  modification  of 
structure — every  additional  part  and  every  alteration  in  the 
ratios  of  parts.  Still  stronger  becomes  the  proof  when 

we  call  to  mind  the  fact,  that  the  same  germ  may  be  evolved 
into  difierent  forms  according  to  circumstances.  Thus,  dur- 
ing its  earlier  stages,  every  embryo  is  sexless — becomes  either 
male  or  female  as  the  balance  of  forces  acting  on  it  deter- 
mines. Again,  it  is  well-known  that  the  larva  of  a  working- 
bee  will  develop  into  a  queen-bee,  if,  before  a  certain  period, 
its  food  be  changed  to  that  on  which  the  larvae  of  queen-bees 
are  fed.  Even  more  remarkable  is  the  case  of  certain 
entozoa.  The  ovum  of  a  tape-worm,  getting  into  the  intes- 
tine of  one  animal,  unfolds  into  the  form  of  its  parent ;  but 
if  carried  into  other  parts  of  the  system,  or  into  the  intestine 
of  some  unlike  animal,  it  becomes  one  of  the  sac-like  creatures, 
called  by  naturalists  Cysticerciy  or  Cxnuri,  or  Echinococci 
— creatures  so  extremely  different  from  the  tape-worm 
in  aspect  and  structure,  that  only  after  careful  investiga- 
tions have  they  been  proved  to  have  the  same  origin. 
All  which  instances  imply  that  each  advance  in  embryonic 
complication  results  from  the  action  of  incident  forces  on  the 
complication  pre\iously  existing.  Indeed,  the  now 

accepted  doctrine  of  epigenesis  necessitates  the  conclusion  that 
organic  evolution  proceeds  after  this  manner.  For  since  it  is 
proved  that  no  germ,  animal  or  vegetal,  contains  the  slightest 
rudiment,  trace,  or  indication  of  the  future  organism — since 
the  microscope  has  shown  us  that  the  first  process  set  up  in 
every  fertilized  germ  4s  a  process  of  repeated  spontaneous 
fissions,  ending  in  the  production  of  a  mass  of  cells,  not  one 
of  which  exhibits   any  special  character;  there   seems  no 


444  THE   MULTIPLICATION    OF   EFFECTS. 

alternative  but  to  conclude  that  tlie  partial  organization  at 
any  moment  subsisting  in  a  growing  embryo,  is  transformed 
by  the  agencies  acting  on  it  Into  the  succeeding  phase  of 
organization,  and  this  into  the  next,  until,  through  ever- 
increasing  complexities,  the  ultimate  form  is  reach- 
ed. Thus,  though  the  subtlety  of  the  forces  and  the 
slowness  of  the  metamorphosis,  prevent  us  from  directly 
tracing  the  genesis  of  many  changes  by  one  cause,  throughout 
the  successive  stages  which  every  embryo  passes  through  ; 
yet,  indirectly,  we  have  strong  evidence  that  this  is  a  source 
of  increasing  heterogeneity.  "We  have  marked  how  multi- 
tudinous are  the  effects  which  a  single  agency  may  generate 
in  an  adult  organism ;  that  a  like  multiplication  of  effects 
must  happen  in  the  unfolding  organism,  we  have  inferred 
from  sundry  illustrative  cases ;  further,  it  has  been  pointed 
out  that  the  ability  which  like  germs  have  to  originate  un- 
like forms,  implies  that  the  successive  transformations  result 
from  the  new  changes  superinduced  on  previous  changes  ; 
and  we  have  seen  that  structureless  as  every  germ  originally 
is,  the  development  of  an  organism  out  of  it  is  otherwise  in- 
comprehensible. Doubtless  we  are  still  in  the  dark  respect- 
ing those  mysterious  properties  which  make  the  germ,  when 
subject  to  fit  influences,  undergo  the  special  changes  begin- 
ning this  scries  of  transformations.  All  here  contended  is, 
that  given  a  germ  possessing  these  mysterious  properties,  the 
evolution  of  an  organism  from  it  depends,  in  part,  on  that 
multiplication  of  effects  which  we  have  seen  to  be  a  cause  of 
evolution  in  general,  so  far  as  we  have  yet  traced  it. 

When,  leaving  the  development  of  single  plants  and  ani- 
mals, we  pass  to  that  of  the  Earth's  flora  and  fauna,  the 
course  of  the  argument  again  becomes  clear  and  simple. 
Though,  as  before  admitted,  the  fragmentary  facts  Palajon- 
tology  has  accumulated,  do  not  clearly  warrant  us  in  saying 
that,  in  the  lapse  of  geologic  time,  there  have  been  evolved 
more  heterogeneous  organisms,  and  more  heterogeneous 
assemblages  of  organisms ;  yet  we  shall  now  see  that  there 


THE   MULTIPLICATION   OF   EFFECTS.  445 

must  ever  have  been  a  tendency  towards  these  results.  TVe 
shall  find  that  the  production  of  many  effects  by  one  cause, 
which,  as  already  shown,  has  been  all  along  increasing 
the  physical  heterogeneity  of  the  Earth,  has  further  neces- 
sitated an  increasing  heterogeneity  in  its  flora  and  fauna, 
individually  and  collectively.  An  illustration  will  make  this 
clear.  Suppose  that  by  a  series  of  upheavals,  occur- 

ring, as  they  are  now  known  to  do,  at  long  intervals,  the  East 
Indian  Archipelago  were  to  be  raised  into  a  continent,  and  a 
chain  of  mountains  formed  along  the  axis  of  elevation.  By 
the  first  of  these  upheavals,  the  plants  and  animals  inhabit- 
ing Borneo,  Sumatra,  New  Guinea,  and  the  rest,  would  be 
subjected  to  slightly- modified  sets  of  conditions.  The  climate 
in  general  would  be  altered  in  temperature,  in  himiidity,  and 
in  its  periodical  variations  ;  while  the  local  difierences  would 
be  multiplied.  These  modifications  would  afiect,  perhaps 
inappreciably,  the  entire  flora  and  fauna  of  the  region.  The 
change  of  level  would  produce  additional  modifications ; 
varying  in  dificrent  species,  and  also  in  difierent  members  of 
the  same  species,  according  to  their  distance  from  the  axis  of 
elevation.  Plants,  growing  only  on  the  sea-shore  in  special 
localities,  might  become  extinct.  Others,  living  only  in 
swamps  of  a  certain  humidity,  would,  if  they  survived  at  all, 
probably  undergo  visible  changes  of  appearance.  "While 
more  marked  alterations  would  occur  in  some  of  the 
plants  that  spread  over  the  lands  newly  raised  above  the 
sea.  The  animals  and  insects  living  on  tliese  modified  plants, 
woidd  themselves  be  in  some  degree  modified  by  change  of 
food,  as  well  as  by  change  of  climate  ;  and  the  modification 
would  be  more  marked  where,  from  the  dwindling  or  disap- 
pearance of  one  kind  of  plant,  an  allied  kind  was  eaten.  In 
the  lapse  of  the  many  generations  arising  before  the  next  up- 
lieaval,  the  sensible  or  insensible  alterations  thus  produced  in 
each  species,  would  become  organized — in  all  the  races  that 
survived  there  would  be  a  more  or  less  complete  adaptation 
to  the  new  conditions.     The  next  upheaval  would  supcrin- 


f4G  THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF   EFFECTS. 

duce  further  organic  changes,  implying  wider  divergences 
from  the  primary  forms ;  and  so  repeatedly.  Now  however 
let  it  be  observed  that  this  revolution  would  not  be  a  substi- 
tution of  a  thousand  modified  species  for  the  thousand 
original  species  ;  but  in  place  of  the  thousand  original  species 
there  would  arise  several  thousand  species,  or  varieties,  or 
changed  forms.  Each  species  being  distributed  over  an  area 
of  some  extent,  and  tending  continually  to  colonize  the  new 
area  exposed,  its  difierent  members  would  be  subject  to  dif- 
ferent sets  of  changes.  Plants  and  animals  migrating  to- 
wards the  equator  would  not  be  aJffected  in  the  same  way 
with  others  migrating  from  it.  Those  which  spread  towards 
the  new  shores,  would  undergo  changes  unlike  the  changes 
undergone  by  those  which  spread  into  the  mountains.  Thus, 
each  original  race  of  organisms  would  become  the  root  from 
which  diverged  several  races,  differing  more  or  less  from  it  and 
from  each  other ;  and  while  some  of  these  might  subsequently 
disappear,  probably  more  than  one  would  survive  in  the  next 
geologic  period  :  the  very  dispersion  itself  increasing  the 
chances  of  survival.  Not  only  would  there  be  certain  modi- 
fications thus  caused  by  changes  of  physical  conditions  and 
food ;  but  also  in  some  cases  other  modifications  caused  by 
changes  of  habit.  The  fauna  of  each  island,  peopling,  step 
by  step,  the  newly-raised  tracts,  would  eventually  come  in 
contact  with  the  faunas  of  other  islands ;  and  some  members 
of  these  other  faunas  would  be  unlike  any  creatures  before 
seen.  Herbivores  meeting  with  new  beasts  of  prey,  would, 
in  some  cases,  be  led  into  modes  of  defence  or  escape  differ- 
ing from  those  previously  used ;  and  simultaneously  the 
beasts  of  prey  would  modify  their  modes  of  'pursuit  and 
attack.  We  know  that  when  circumstances  demand  it,  such 
changes  of  habit  do  take  place  in  animals ;  and  we  know 
that  if  the  new  habits  become  the  dominant  ones,  they 
must  eventually  in  some  degree  alter  the  organiza- 
tion. Observe  now,  however,  a  further  consequence. 
There  must  arise  not  simply  a  tendency  towards  the  differen- 


the'  multiplication  of  effects.  447 

(lution  of  each  ra(ie  of  organisms  into  several  races  ;  but  also 
a  tendency  to  the  occasional  production  of  a  somewhat  higher 
organism.  Taken  in  the  mass,  these  divergent  varieties, 
uhich  have  been  caused  by  fresh  physical  conditions  and 
habits  of  life,  will  exhibit  alterations  quite  indefinite  in  kind 
and  degree ;  and  alterations  that  do  not  necessarily  consti- 
tute an  advance.  Probably  in  most  cases  the  modified  type 
will  be  not  appreciably  more  heterogeneous  than  the  original 
one.  But  it  7nust  now  and  then  occur,  that  some  division  of 
a  species,  falling  into  circumstances  which  give  it  rather 
more  complex  experiences,  and  demand  actions  somewhat 
more  involved,  will  have  certain  of  its  organs  further  dif- 
ferentioted  in  proportionately  small  degrees — will  become 
slightly  more  heterogeneous.  Hence,  there  will  from  time 
to  time  arise  an  increased  heterogeneity  both  of  the  Earth's 
flora  and  faima,  and  of  individual  races  included  in  thenr. 
Omitting  detailed  explanations,  and  allowing  for  the  qualifi- 
cations which  cannot  here  be  specified,  it  is  sufficiently  clear 
that  geological  mutations  have  all  along  tended  to  complicate 
the  forms  of  life,  whether  regarded  separately  or  collectively. 
That  multiplication  of  effects  which  has  been  a  part-cause  of 
the  transformation  of  the  Earth's  crust  from  the  simple  into 
the  complex,  has  simultaneously  led  to  a  parallel  transforma- 
tion of  the  Life  upon  its  surface.* 

The  deduction  here  drawn  from  the  established  truths  of 

♦  Had  this  paragraph,  first  published  in  the  Westminster  Ecvieic  in  1857,  been 
written  after  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Darwin's  work  on  The  Origin  of  Species,  it 
would  doubtless  have  been  otherwise  Expressed.  Reference  would  have  been 
made  to  the  process  of  "  natural  selection,"  as  greatly  facilitating  the  differenti- 
ations described.  As  it  is,  however,  I  prefer  to  let  the  passage  stand  in  its  origi- 
nal shape  :  partly  because  it  seems  to  me  that  these  successive  changes  of  condi- 
tions would  produce  divergent  varieties  or  species,  apart  from  the  influence  of 
"  natural  selection"  (though  in  less  numerous  ways  as  well  as  less  rapidly) ;  and 
partly  because  I  conceive  that  in  the  absence  of  these  successive  changes  of  con- 
ditions, "  natural  selection"  would  effect  comparatively  little.  Let  me  add  that 
though  these  positions  are  not  enunciated  in  The  Origin  of  Species,  yet  a  commou 
friend  gives  me  reason  to  think  that  Mr.  Darwin  would  coincide  in  them ;  if  he 
did  not  indeed  consider  them  as  tacitly  implied  in  his  work. 


448  THE   ^rULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS. 

geology  and  the  general  laws  of  life,  gains  immensely  in  ^^-eight 
on  finding  it  to  be  in  harmony  with  an  induction  drawn  from 
direct  experience.  Just  that  divergence  of  many  races  from 
one  race,  which  we  inferred  must  have  been  continually  oc- 
curring during  geologic  time,  we  know  to  have  occurred  dur- 
ing the  pre -historic  and  historic  periods,  in  man  and  domestic 
ftnimals.  And  just  that  multiplication  of  effects  which  we 
concluded  must  have  been  instrumental  to  the  first,  we  see 
lias  in  a  great  measure  wrought  the  last.  Single  causes,  as 
famine,  pressure  of  population,  war,  have  periodically  led  to 
further  dispersions  of  mankind  and  of  dependent  creatures  : 
each  such  dispersion  initiating  new  modifications,  new  varieties 
of  type.  "Whether  all  the  human  races  be  or  be  not  derived 
from  one  stock,  philology  makes  it  clear  that  whole  groups  of 
races,  now  easily  distinguishable  from  each  other,  were  origin- 
ally one  race — that  the  diffusion  of  one  race  into  different 
climates  and  conditions  of  existence  has  produced  many 
altered  forms  of  it.  Similarly  with  domestic  animals.  Though 
in  some  cases  (as  that  of  dogs)  community  of  origin  wiU  per- 
haps be  disputed,  yet  in  other  cases  (as  that  of  the  sheep  or 
the  cattle  of  our  own  country)  it  will  not  be  questioned  that 
local  differences  of  climate,  food,  and  treatment,  have  trans- 
formed one  original  breed  into  numerous  breeds,  now  become 
so  far  distinct  as  to  produce  unstable  hybrids.  Moreover 
through  the  complication  of  effects  flowing  from  single  causes, 
we  here  find,  what  we  before  inferred,  not  only  an  increase  of 
general  heterogeneity,  but  also  of  special  heterogeneity. 
AYhile  of  the  divergent  divisions  and  subdivisions  of  the  hu- 
man race,  many  have  undergone  changes  not  constituting  an 
advance ;  others  have  become  decidedly  more  heterogeneous. 
The  civilized  European  departs  more  widely  from  the  verte- 
brate archetype  than  does  the  savage. 

§  160.  A  sensation  does  not  expend  itself  in  arousing  some 
single  state  of  consciousness ;  but  the  state  of  consciousness 
aroused  is  made  up  of  various  represented  sensations  connected 


THB   MULTIPLICATION    OF   EFFECrS.  419 

by  CO- existence,  or  sequence  with  the  presented  sensation. 
And  that,  in  proportion  as  the  grade  of  intelligence  is  high, 
the  number  of  ideas  suggested  is  great,  may  be  readily  inferred. 
Let  us,  however,  look  at  the  proof  that  here  too,  each  change 
is  the  parent  of  many  changes ;  and  that  the  multiplication 
increases  in  proportion  as  the  area  affected  is  complex. 

TVere  some  hitherto  unknown  bird,  driven  say  by  stress  of 
weather  from  the  remote  north,  to  make  its  appearance  on 
our  shores,  it  would  excite  no  speculation  in  the  sheep  or  cat- 
tle amid  which  it  alighted :  a  perception  of  it  as  a  creature 
like  those  constantly  flying  about,  would  be  the  sole  inter- 
ruption of  that  dull  current  of  consciousness  which  accom- 
panies grazing  and  rumination.  The  cow-herd,  by  whom  we 
may  suppose  the  exhausted  bird  to  be  presently  caught,  would 
probably  gaze  at  it  with  some  slight  curiosity,  as  being  un- 
like any  he  had  before  seen — would  note  its  most  conspicuous 
markings,  and  vaguely  ponder  on  the  questions,  where  it 
came  from,  and  how  it  came.  The  village  bird-stuifer  would 
have  suggested  to  him  by  the  sight  of  it,  sundry  forms  to 
which  it  bore  a  Kttle  resemblance  ;  would  receive  from  it  more 
numerous  and  more  specific  impressions  respecting  structure 
and  plumage ;  would  be  reminded  of  various  instances  of 
birds  brought  by  storms  from  foreign  parts — would  tell  who 
found  them,  who  stuffed  them,  who  bought  them.  Suppos- 
ing the  unknown  bird  taken  to  a  naturalist  of  the  old  school, 
interested  only  in  externals,  (one  of  those  described  by  the 
late  Edward  Forbes,  as  examining  animals  as  though  they  were 
merely  skins  filled  with  straw,)  it  would  excite  in  him  a  more 
involved  series  of  mental  changes  :  there  would  be  an  elabor- 
ate examination  of  the  feathers,  a  noting  of  all  their  technical 
distinctions,  with  a  reduction  of  these  perceptions  to  certain 
equivalent  written  symbols;  reasons  for  referring  the  new 
form  to  a  particular  familj^,  order,  and  genus  would  be  sought 
out  and  written  down  ;  communications  with  the  secretary  of 
some  society,  or  editor  of  some  journal,  would  follow ;  ana 
probably  there  would  be  not  a  few  thoughts  about  the  addi* 


450  THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS. 

tion  of  the  ii  to  the  describer's  name,  to  form  tlie  name  of  the 
species.  Lastly,  in  the  mind  of  a  comparative  anatomist,  such 
a  new  species,  should  it  happen  to  have  any  marked  internal 
peculiarity,  might  produce  additional  sets  of  changes — might 
very  possibly  suggest  modified  views  respecting  the  relation- 
ships of  the  division  to  which  it  belonged ;  or,  perhaps,  alter 
his  conceptions  of  the  homologies  and  developments  of  certain 
organs ;  and  the  conclusions  drawn  might  not  improbably 
enter  as  elements  into  still  wider  inquiries  concerning  the 
origin  of  organic  forms. 

From  ideas  let  us  turn  to  emotions.  In  a  young  child,  a 
father's  anger  produces  little  else  than  vague  fear — a  disagree- 
able sense  of  impending  evil,  taking  various  shapes  of  physi- 
cal suffering  or  deprivation  of  pleasures.  'In  elder  children, 
the  same  harsh  words  will  arouse  additional  feelings :  some- 
times a  sense  of  shame,  of  penitence,  or  of  sorrow  for  hav- 
ing offended;  at  other  times,  a  sense  of  injustice,  and  a 
consequent  anger.  In  the  wife,  yet  a  fui'ther  range  of  feel- 
ings may  come  into  existence — perhaps  wounded  affection; 
perhaps  self-pity  for  ill-usage,  perhaps  contempt  for  ground  • 
less  irritability,  perhaps  sympathy  for  some  suffering  which 
the  irritability  indicates,  perhaps  anxiety  about  an  unknown 
misfortune  which  she  thinks  has  produced  it.  Nor  are  we 
without  evidence  that  among  adults,  the  like  differences  of  de- 
velopment are  accompanied  by  like  differences  in  the  number 
of  emotions  that  are  aroused,  in  combination  or  rapid  succes- 
sion— the  lower  natures  being  characterized  by  that  impul- 
siveness which  results  from  the  uncontrolled  action  of  a  few 
feelings ;  and  tl^  higher  natures  being  characterized  by  the 
simultaneous  action  of  many  secondary  feelings,  modifying 
those  fir^  awakened. 

Possibly  it  will  be  objected  that  tne  illustrations  here  given, 
are  drawn  from  the  functional  changes  of  the  nervous  system, 
not  from  its  structural  changes ;  and  that  what  is  proved 
among  the  first,  does  not  necessarily  hold  among  the  last. 
This  must  be  admitted.     Those^  however,  who  recognize  the 


THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS.  451 

tnitt  that  the  structural  changes  are  the  slowly  accumulated 
results  of  the  functional  changes,  will  readily  draw  the  corol- 
lary, that  a  part-cause  of  the  evolution  of  the  nervous  system, 
as  of  other  evolution,  is  this  multiplication  of  effects  which 
becomes  6ver  greater  as  the  development  becomes  higher. 

§  161.  If  the  advance  of  Man  towards  greater  heterogene- 
ity in  both  body  and  mind,  is  in  part  traceable  to  the  produc- 
tion of  many  effects  by  one  cause,  still  more  clearly  may  the 
advance  of  Society  towards  greater  heterogeneity  be  so  ex- 
plained. Consider  the  growth  of  an  industrial  organization. 
"When,  as  must  occasionally  happen,  some  individual  of  a 
tribe  displays  unusual  aptitude  for  making  an  article  of  gen- 
eral use  (a  weapon,  for  instance)  which  was  before  made  by 
each  man  for  himself,  there  arises  a  tendency  towards  the 
differentiation  of  that  individual  into  a  maker  of  weapons. 
His  companions  (warriors  and  hunters  all  of  them)  severally 
wish  to  have  the  best  weapons  that  can  be  made ;  and  are 
therefore  certain  to  offer  strong  inducements  to  this  skilled 
individual  to  make  weapons  for  them.  He,  on  the  other  hand, 
having  both  an  unusual  faculty,  and  an  imusual  liking,  for 
making  weapons  (the  capacity  and  the  desire  for  any  occu- 
pation being  commonly  associated),  is  predisposed  to  fulfil 
these  commissions  on  the  offer  of  adequate  rewards :  espe- 
cially as  his  love  of  distinction  is  also  gratified.  This  first 
specialization  of  function,  once  commenced,  tends  ever  to  be- 
come more  decided.  On  the  side  of  the  weapon-maker,  con  - 
tinned  practice  gives  increased  skill— increased  superiority 'to 
his  products.  On  the  side  of  his  clients,  cessation  of  practice 
entails  decreased  skill.  Thus  the  influences  that  determine 
this  division  of  labour  grow  stronger  in  both  ways :  this 
social  movement  tends  ever  to  become  more  decided  in  the 
direction  in  which  it  was  first  set  up ;  and  the  iQcipient 
heterogeneity  is,  on  the  average  of  cases,  likely  to  become 
permanent  for  that  generation,  if  no  longer.  Such  a 

process,  besides  differentiatiag  the  social  mass  into  two  parts, 


452  THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS. 

the  one  monopolizing,  or  almost  monopolizing,  the  perform- 
ance of  a  certain  function,  and  the  other  having  lost  the 
habit,  and  in  some  measure  the  power,  of  performing  that 
function,  has  a  tendency  to  initiate  other  differentiations.  The 
advance  described  implies  the  introduction  of  barter :  the 
maker  of  weapons  has,  on  each  occasion,  to  be  paid  in  such 
other  articles  as  he  agrees  to  take  in  exchange.  Now  he  will 
not  habitually  take  in  exchange  one  kind  of  article,  but  many 
kinds.  He  does  not  want  mats  only,  or  skins,  or  fishing- gear ; 
but  he  wants  all  these ;  and  on  each  occaaion  will  bargain 
for  the  particular  things  he  most  needs.  "What  follows  ?  If 
among  the  members  of  the  tribe  there  exist  any  slight  differ- 
ences of  skill  in  the  manufacture  of  these  various  things,  as 
there  are  almost  sure  to  do,  the  weapon-maker  will  take  from 
each  one  the  thing  which  that  one  excels  in  making  :  he  will 
exchange  for  mats  with  him  whose  mats  are  superior,  and 
will  'bargain  for  the  fishing-gear  of  whoever  has  the  best. 
■  But  he  who  has  bartered  away  his  mats  or  his  fishing-gear, 
must  make  other  mats  or  fishing-_2:ear  for  himself;  and  in  so 
doing  must,  in  some  degree,  further  develop  his  aptitude. 
Thus  it  results  that  the  small  specialities  of  faculty  possessed 
by  various  members  of  the  tribe  will  tend  to  grow  more  de- 
cided. If  such  transactions  are  from  time  to  time  repeated, 
these  specializations  may  become  appreciable.  And  whether 
or  not  there  ensue  distinct  differentiations  of  other  individ- 
uals into  makers  of  particular  articles,  it  is  clear  that  incipi- 
ent differentiations  take  place  throughout  the  tribe  :  the  one 
original  cause  produces  not  only  the  first  dual  effect,  but  a 
number  of  secondary  dual  effects,  like  in  kind  but  minor  in 
degree.  This  process,  of  which  traces  may  be  seen 

among  groups  of  school-boys,  cannot  well  produce  a  lasting 
distribution  of  functions  in  an  unsettled  tribe ;  but  where 
there  grows  up  a  fixed  and  multiplying  community,  such 
differentiations  become  permanent,  and  increase  with  each 
generation.  An  addition  to  the  number  of  citizens,  involv 
ing  a  greater  demand  for  every  commodity,  intensifies  ihfi 


THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS.  453 

fuuctional  activity  of  each  specialized  person  or  class ;  and 
this  renders  the  specialization  more  definite  where  it  al- 
ready exists,  and  establishes  it  where  it  is  but  nascent.  By 
increasing  the  pressure  on  the  means  of  subsistence,  a  larger 
population  again  augments  these  results  ;  since  every  individ- 
ual is  forced  more  and  more  to  confine  himself  to  that  which 
he  can  do  best,  and  by  which  he  can  gain  most.  And  this 
industrial  progress,  by  aiding  future  production,  opens  the 
way  for  further  growth  of  population,  which  reacts  as  be- 
fore. Presently,  imder  the  same  stimuli,  new  occu- 
pations arise.  Competing  workers,  severally  aiming  to  pro- 
duce improved  articles,  occasionally  discover  better  processes 
or  better  materials.  In  weapons  and  cutting-tools,  the  substi- 
tution of  bronze  for  stone  entails  on  him  who  first  makes  it,  a 
great  increase  of  demand — so  great  an  increase  that  he  pre- 
sently finds  all  his  time  occupied  in  making  the  bronze  for  the 
articles  he  sells,  and  is  obliged  to  depute  the  fashioning  of 
these  articles  to  others  ;  and  eventually  the  making  of  bronze, 
thus  gradually  differentiated  from  a  pre-existing  occupation, 
becomes  an  occupation  by  itself.  But  now  mark  the  ramified 
changes  which  follow  this  change.  Bronze  soon  replaces  stone, 
not  only  in  the  articles  it  was  first  used  for,  but  in  many  others ; 
and  so  affects  the  manufacture  of  them.  Further,  it  affects  the 
processes  which  such  improved  utensils  subserve,  and  the  re- 
sulting products — modifies  buildings,  carvings,  di'ess,  personal 
decorations.  Yet  again,  it  sets  going  sundry  manufactures 
which  were  before  impossible,  from  lack  of  a  material  fit  for 
the  requisite  tools.  And  all  these  changes  react  on  the  peo- 
ple— increase  their  manipulative  skill,  their  intelligence,  their 
comfort — refine  their  habits  and  tastes. 

It  is  out  of  the  question  here  to  follow  through  its  succes- 
sive complications,  this  increasing  social  heterogeneity  thai 
results  from  the  production  of  many  effects  by  one  cause. 
But  leaving  the  intermediate  phases  of  social  development, 
let  us  take  an  illustration  from  its  passing  phase.  To  trace 
the  effects  of  steam-power,  in  its  manifold  applications  to 


454  THE   MULTIPLICATION   OF   EFFECTS. 

mining,  navigation,  and  manufactures,  would  carry  us  into 
unmanageable  detail.     Let  us  confine  ourselves  to  the  latest 
embodiment  of  steam-power — the  locomotive  engine.     This, 
as  tbe  proximate  cause  of  our  railway-system,  bas  changed 
the  face  of  the  country,  the  course  of  trade,  and  the  habits  of 
the  people.     Consider,  first,  the  complicated  sets  of  changes 
that  precede  the  making  of  every  railway — the  provisional 
arrangements,  the  meetings,  the  registration,  the  trial- section, 
the  parliamentary  survey,  the  lithographed  plans,  the  books 
of  reference,  the  local  deposits  and  notices,  the  application  to 
Parliament,  the  passing  Standing-Orders  Committee,  the  first, 
second,  and  third  readings  :  each  of  which  brief  heads  indi- 
cates a  multiplicity  of  transactions,  and  the  further  develop- 
ment of  sundry  occupations,  (as  those  of  engineers,  surveyors, 
lithographers,  parliamentary  agents,  share-brokers,)  and  the 
creation  of  sundry  others  (as  those  of  traffic-takers,  reference- 
takers).     Consider,   next,   the    yet   more   marked    changes 
implied  in  railway  construction — thi3  cuttings,  embankings, 
tunnellings,  diversions  of  roads  ;  the.  building  of  bridges  and 
stations ;  the  laying  down  of  ballast,  sleepers,  and  rails  ;  the 
making  of  engines,  tenders,  carriages,  and  wagons  :  which 
processes,  acting  upon  numerous  trades,  increase  the  import- 
ation of  timber,  the  quarrying  of  stone,  the  manufacture  of 
iron,  the  mining  of  coal,  the  burning  of  bricks ;  institute  a 
variety  of  special  manufactures  weekly  advertised  in   the 
Hailway  Times ;    and  call  into  being  some  new  classes  of 
workers  —  drivers,    stokers,    cleaners,    plate-layers,    &c.    &c. 
Then  come  the  changes,  more  numerous  and  involved  still, 
which  railways  in  action  produce  on  the  community  at  large. 
Ihe  organization  of  every  business  is  more  or  less  modified: 
ease  of  communication  makes  it  better  to  do  directly  what 
was  before  done  by  proxy ;  agencies  are  established  where 
previously  they  would  not  have  paid ;    goods  are  obtained 
from  remote  wholesale  houses  instead  of  near  retail  ones  ;  and 
commodities  are  used  which  distance  once  rendered  inacces- 
sible.   The  rapidity  and  small  cost  of  carriage,  tend  to  special ■ 


THE   MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECrS.  455 

ize  more  than  ever  the  industries  of  different  districts — to 
confine  each  manufacture  to  the  parts  in  which,  from  local 
advantages,  it  can  be  best  caiTied  on.  Economical  distribu- 
tion equalizes  prices,  and  also,  on  the  average,  lowers  prices  : 
thus  bringing  divers  articles  within  the  means  of  those  before 
unable  to  buy  them,  and  so  increasing  their  comforts  and 
improving  their  habits.  At  the  same  time  the  practice  of 
travelling  is  immensely  extended.  Classes  who  before  could 
not  afford  it,  take  annual  trips  to  the  sea ;  visit  their  distant 
relations;  make  tours;  and  so  we  are  benefited  in  body, 
feelings,  and  intellect.  The  more  prompt  transmission  of 
letters  and  of  news  produces  further  changes — makes  the 
pulse  of  the  nation  faster.  Yet  more,  there  arises  a  wide 
dissemination  of  cheap  literature  through  railway  book-stalls, 
and  of  advertisements  in  railway  carriages  :  both  of  them 
aiding  ulterior  progress.  And  the  innumerable  changes  here 
briefly  indicated  are  consequent  on  the  invention  of  the  loco- 
motive engine.  The  social  organism  has  been  rendered  more 
heterogeneous,  in  virtue  of  the  many  new  occupations  intro- 
duced, and  the  many  old  ones  further  specialized ;  prices  in 
all  places  have  been  altered  ;  each  trader  has,  more  or  less, 
modified  his  way  of  doing  business ;  and  every  person  has 
been  afiected  in  his  actions,  thoughts,  emotions. 

The  only  further  fact  demandiug  notice,  is,  that  we  hero 
see  more  clearly  than  ever,  that  in  proportion  as  the  area  over 
which  any  influence  extends,  becomes  heterogeneous,  the 
results  are  in  a  yet  higher  degree  multiplied  in  number  and 
kind.  While  among  the  primitive  tribes  to  whom  it  was 
first  known,  caoutchouc  caused  but  few  changes,  among  our- 
selves the  changes  have  been  so  many  and  varied  that  the 
history  of  them  occupies  a  volume.  Upon  the  small,  homo- 
geneous community  inhabiting  one  of  the  Hebrides,  the 
electric  telegraph  would  produce,  were  it  used,  scarcely  any 
results  ;  but  in  England  the  results  it  produces  are  multitu- 
dinous. 

Space  permitting,  the  synthesis  might  here  be  pursued 


450  THE   MULTIPLICATION    OF   EFFECTS. 

in  relation  to  all  the  subtler  products  of  social  life.  It  might 
be  shown  how,  in  Science,,  an  advance  of  one  division  pre- 
sently advances  other  divisions — how  Astronomy  has  been 
immensely  forwarded  by  discoveries  in  Optics,  while  other 
optical  discoveries  have  initiated  Microscopic  Anatomy,  and 
greatly  aided  the  growth  of  Physiology — how  Chemistry  has 
indirectly  increased  our  knowledge  of  Electricity,  Magnetism, 
Biolog)^,  Geology — how  Electricity  has  reacted  on  Chemistry 
and  Magnetism,  developed  our  views  of  Light  and  Heat,  and 
disclosed  sundry  laws  of  nervous  action.  In  Literature  the 
same  truth  might  be  exhibited  in  the  still- multiplying  forms 
of  periodical  publications  that  have  descended  from  the  first 
newspaper,  and  which  have  severally  acted  and  reacted  on 
other  forms  of  literature  and  on  each  other ;  or  in  the  bias 
given  by  each  book  of  power  to  various  subsequent  books. 
The  influence  which  a  new  school  of  Painting  (as  that  of  the 
pre-Pafia  elites)  exercises  on  other  schools ;  the  hints  which 
all  kinds  of  pictorial  art  are  deriving  from  Photography  ;  the 
complex  results  of  new  critical  doctrines  ;  might  severally  be 
dwelt  on  as  displaying  the  like  multiplication  of  efiects.  But 
it  would  needlessly  tax  the  reader's  patience  to  detail,  in 
their  many  ramifications,  these  various  changes :  here  be- 
come so  involved-  and  subtle  as  to  be  followed  with  some 
difficulty. 

§  162.  After  the  argument  which  closed  the  last  chapter,  a 
parallel  one  seems  here  scarcely  required.  For  symmetry's 
sake,  however,  it  will  be  proper  briefly  to  point  out  how  the 
multiplication  of  efiects,  like  the  instability  of  the  homo- 
geneous, is  a  corollary  from  the  persistence  of  force. 

Things  which  we  call  difierent  are  things  which  react  in 
iifierent  ways ;  and  we  can  know  them  as  difierent  only  by 
the  differences  in  their  reactions.  When  we  distinguish 
bodies  as  hard  and  soft,  rough  and  smooth,  we  simply  mean 
that  certain  like  muscular  forces  expended  on  them  are 
followed  by  unlike  sets  of  sensations— unlike  reactive  forces. 


THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS.  457 

Objects  tliat  are  classed  as  red,  blue,  yellow,  &c.,  are  objects 
that  decompose  light  In  strongly- contrasted  ways ;  that  is,  we 
know  contrasts  of  colour  as  contrasts  in  the  changes  produced 
in  a  uniform  incident  force.  Manifestly,  any  two  things 
which  do  not  work  unequal  effects  on  consciousness,  either  by 
unequally  opposing  our  own  energies,  or  by  impressing  our 
senses  with  unequally  modified  forms  of  certain  externa] 
energies,  cannot  be  distinguished  by  us.  Hence  the  proposi 
tion  that  the  different  parts  of  any  whole  must  react  differ- 
ently on  a  uniform  incident  force,  and  must  so  reduce  it  to 
a  group  of  multiform  forces,  is  in  essence  a  truism.  A 
further  step  will  reduce  this  truism  to  its  lowest  terms. 

"VYhen,  from  unlikeness  between  the  effects  they  produce 
on  consciousness,  we  predicate  unlikeness  between  two  ob- 
jects, what  is  our  warrant?  and  what  do  we  mean  by  the 
unlikeness,  objectively  considered  ?  Our  warrant  is  the  per- 
sistence of  force.  Some  kind  or  amount  of  change  has  been 
wrought  in  us  by  the  one,  which  has  not  been  wrought  by 
the  other.  This  change  we  ascribe  to  some  force  exercised  by 
the  one  which  the  other  has  not  exercised.  And  we  have  no 
alternative  but  to  do  this,  or  to  assert  that  the  change  had 
no  antecedent ;  which  is  to  deny  the  persistence  of  force. 
Whence  it  is  further  manifest  that  what  we  regard  as  the 
objective  unlikeness  is  the  presence  in  the  one  of  some  force, 
or  set  of  forces,  not  present  in  the  other — something  in  the 
kinds  or  amounts  or  directions  of  the  constituent  forces  of  the 
one,  which  those  of  the  other  do  not  parallel.  But  now  if 
things  or  parts  of  things  which  we  call  different,  are  those  of 
which  the  constituent  forces  differ  in  one  or  more  respects  ; 
what  must  happ^i  to  any  like  forces,  or  any  uniform  force, 
felling  on  them  ?  Such  like  forces,  or  parts  of  a  uniform 
force,  must  be  differently  modified.  The  force  which  is  pre- 
sent in  the  one  and  not  in  the  other,  must  be  an  element  in 
the  conflict — must  produce  its  equivalent  reaction ;  and  must 
60  affect  the  total  reaction.  To  say  othervrise  is  to  say  that 
21 


458  THE    MULTIPLICATION    OF    EFFECTS 

this  differential  force  will  produce  no  effect ;  which  is  to  say 
that  force  is  not  persistent. 

I  need  not  develop  this  corollary  further.  It  manifestly 
follows  that  a  uniform  force,  falling  on  a  uniform  aggre- 
gate, must  undergo  dispersion  ;  that  falling  on  an  aggregate 
made  up  of  unlike  parts,  it  must  undergo,  dispersion  from 
each  part,  as  well  as  qualitative  differentiations ;  that  in  pro- 
portion as  the  parts  are  unlike,  these  qualitative  differentia- 
tions must  be  marked ;  that  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
the  parts,  they  must  be  numerous  ;  that  the  secondary  forces 
BO  produced,  must  undergo  further  transformations  while 
working  equivalent  transformations  in  the  parts  that  change 
them  ;  and  similarly  with  the  forces  they  generate.  Thus  the 
conclusions  that  a  part- cause  of  Evolution  is  the  multiplica- 
tion of  effects  ;  and  that  this  increases  in  geometrical  progres- 
sion as  the  heterogeneity  becomes  greater ;  are  not  only  to  be 
established  inductively,  but  are  deducible  from  the  deepest 
of  all  truths 


CHAPTEH   XXL 

SEGREGATION. 

§  163,  The  general  interpretation  of  Evolution  is  far  from 
being  completed  in  the  preceding  chapters.  "We  must  con- 
template its  changes  under  yet  another  aspect,  before  we  can 
form  a  definite  conception  of  the  process  constituted  by  them. 
Though  the  laws  already  set  forth,  furnish  a  key  to  the  re- 
arrangement of  parts  which  Evolution  exhibits,  in  so  far  as 
it  is  an  advance  from  the  uniform  to  the  multiform ;  they 
furnish  no  key  to  this  re-arrangement  in  so  far  as  it  is  an 
advance  from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite.  On  studj^ng  the 
actions  and  re-actions  every^'here  going  on,  we  have  found 
it  to  follow  inevitably  from  a  certain  primordial  truth,  that 
the  homogeneous  must  lapse  into  the  heterogeneous,  and  that 
the  heterogeneous  must  become  more  heterogeneous  ;  but  wr 
have  not  discovered  why  the  differently- affected  parts  of  any 
simple  whole,  become  clearly  marked  off  from  each  other,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  become  unlike.  Thus  far  no  reason 
has  been  assigned  why  there  should  not  ordinarily  arise  a 
vague  chaotic  heterogeneity,  in  place  of  that  orderly  hetero- 
geneity displayed  in  Evolution.  It  still  remains  to  find  out 
the  cause  of  that  local  integration  which  accompanies 
local  differentiation — that  gradually-completed  segregation^ 
of  like  units  into  a  group,  distinctly  separated  from  neigh- 
bouring groups  which  are  severally  made  up  of  other  kinds 
of  units.     The  rationale  will  be  conveniently  introduced  by  a 


460  SEGEEGATION. 

few  instances  In  which  we  may  watch  this  segregative  pro- 
cess taking  place. 

When  towards  the  end  of  September,  the  trees  are  gaining 
their  autumn  colours,  and  we  are  hoping  shortly  to  see  a 
further  change  increasing  still  more  the  beauty  of  the  land- 
scape, we  are  not  uncommonly  disappointed  by  the  occur- 
rence of  an  equlnoxial  gale.  Out  of  the  mixed  mass  of 
foliage  on  each  branch,  the  strong  current  of  air  carries 
away  the  decaying  and  brightly-tinted  leaves,  but  fails  to 
detach  those  which  are  still  green.  And  while  these  last, 
frayed  and  seared  by  long- continued  beatings  against  each 
other,  and  the  twigs  around  them,  give  a  sombre  colour  to 
the  woods,  the  red  and, yellow  and  orange  leaves  are  collected 
together  in  ditches  and  behind  walls  and  In  corners  where 
eddies  allow  them  to  settle.  That  is  to  say,  by  the  action  of 
that  uniform  force  which  the  wind  exerts  on  both  kinds,  the 
dying  leaves  are  picked  out  from  among  their  still  living  com- 
panions and  gathered  in  places  by  themselves.  Again,  the 
separation  of  particles  of  different  sizes,  as  dust  and  sand 
from  pebbles,  may  be  similarly  effected  ;  as  we  see  on  every 
road  in  March.  And  from  the  daj^s  of  Homer  downwards, 
the  power  of  currents  of  air,  natural  and  artificial,  to  part 
from  one  another  units  of  unlike  specific  gravities,  has 
been  habitually  utilized  in  the  winnowing  of  chaff  from 
wheat.  In  every  river  we  see  how  the  mixed  ma- 

terials carried  down,  are  separately  deposited — ^how  in  rapids 
the  bottom  gives  rest  to  nothing  but  boulders  and  pebbles  ; 
how  where  the  current  Is  not  so  strong,  sand  is  let  fall ;  and 
how,  in  still  places,  there  is  a  sediment  of  mud.  This  select- 
ive action  of  moving  water,  is  commonly  applied  In  the  arts 
to  obtain  masses  of  particles  of  different  degrees  of  fineness. 
Emery,  for  example,  after  being  ground,  is  carried  by  a  slow 
current  through  successive  compartments;  in  the  first  of 
which  the  largest  grains  subside ;  in  the  second  of  which 
the  grains  that  reach  the  bottom  before  the  water  has 
escaped,  are  somewhat  smaller;  in  the  third  smaller  stiU; 


SEGREGATION.  461 

until  in  tho  last  there  are  deposited  only  those  finest 
particles  which  fall  so  slowly  through  the  water,  that  they 
have  not  previously  been  able  to  reach  the  bottom.  And  in 
a  way  that  is  different  though  equally  significant,  this  segre- 
gative effect  of  water  in  motion,  is  exemplified  in  the  carrj'- 
ing  away  of  soluble  from  insoluble  matters — an  application 
of  it  hourly  made  in  every  laboratory.  The  effects  ol 

the  uniform  forces  which  aerial  and  aqueous  currents  exercise, 
are  paralleled  by  those  of  uniform  forces  of  other  orders.  Elec- 
tric attraction  will  separate  small  bodies  from  large,  or  light 
bodies  from  heavy.  By  magnetism,  grains  of  iron  may  be 
selected  from  among  other  grains  ;  as  by  the  Sheffield 
grinder,  whose  magnetized  gauze  mask  filters  out  the  steel- 
dust  which  his  wheel  gives  off,  from  the  stone-dust  that 
accompanies  it.  And  how  the  affinity  of  any  agent  acting 
differently  on  the  components  of  a  given  body,  enables  us  to 
take  away  some  component  and  leave  the  rest  behind,  is 
shown  in  almost  every  chemical  experiment. 

What  now  is  the  general  truth  here  variously  presented  ? 
How  are  these  several  facts  and  countless  similar  ones,  to  bo 
expressed  in  terms  that  embrace  them  ail  ?  In  each  case  we 
see  in  action  a  force  which  may  be  regarded  as  simple  or  uni- 
form— fluid  motion  in  a  certain  direction  at  a  certain  velocity  ; 
electric  or  magnetic  attraction  of  a  given  amount ;  chemical 
affinity  of  a  particular  kind :  or  rather,  in  strictness,  the  act- 
ing force  is  compounded  of  one  of  these  and  certain  other 
uniform  forces,  as  gravitation,  etc.  In  each  case  we  have  an 
aggregate  made  up  of  unlike  units — either  atoms  of  different 
substances  combined  or  intimately  mingled,  or  fragments  of 
the  same  substance  of  different  sizes,  or  other  constituent 
parts  that  are  unlike  in  their  specific  gravities,  shapes,  or 
other  attributes.  And  in  each  case  these  unlike  units,  or 
groups  of  units,  of  which  the  aggregate  consists,  are,  under 
the  influence  of  some  resultant  force  acting  indiscrimi- 
nately on  them  all,  separated  from  each  other — segregated 
into  minor  aggregates,  each   consisting  of  units  that  are 


462  SEGREGATION. 

severally  like  eacli  other  and  unlike  those  of  the  other  minor 
aggregates.  Such  being  the  common  aspect  of  these  changes, 
let  US  look  for  the  common  interpretation  of  them. 

In  the  chapter  on  '*  The  Instability  of  the  Homogeneous," 
it  was  shown  that  a  uniform  force  falling  on  any  aggregate, 
produces  unlike  modifications  in  its  different  parts — turns  the 
uniform  into  the  multiform  and  the  multiform  into  the  more 
multiform.  The  transformation  thus  wrought,  consists  of 
either  insensible  or  sensible  changes  of  relative  position 
among  the  units,  or  of  both — either  of  those  molecular  re- 
arrangements which  we  call  chemical,  or  of  those  larger 
transpositions  which  are  distinguished  as  mechanical,  or  of 
the  two  united.  Such  portion  of  the  permanently  effective 
force  as  reaches  each  different  part,  or  differently- conditioned 
part,  may  be  expended  in  modifying  the  mutual  relations  of 
its  constituents ;  or  it  may  be  expended  in  moving  the  part 
to  another  place  ;  or  it  may  be  expended  partially  in  the  first 
and  partially  in  the  second.  Hence,  so  much  of  the  perma- 
nently effective  force  as  does  not  work  the  one  kind  of  effect, 
must  work  the  other  kind.  It  is  manifest  that  if  of  the 
permanently  effective  force  which  falls  on  some  compound 
unit  of  an  aggregate,  little,  if  any,  is  absorbed  in  re-arrang- 
ing the  ultimate  components  of  such  compound  unit,  much 
or  the  whole,  must  show  itself  in  motion  of  such  compound 
unit  to  some  other  place  in  the  aggregate ;  and  conversely, 
if  little  or  none  of  this  force  is  absorbed  in  generating  me- 
chanical transposition,  much  or  the  whole  must  go  to  pro- 
duce molecular  alterations.  What  now  must  follow 
from  this  ?  In  cases  where  none  or  only  part  of  the  forc3 
generates  chemical  re- distributions,  what  physical  re-distri- 
butions must  be  generated  ?  Parts  that  are  similar  to  each 
other  will  be  similarly  acted  on  by  the  force ;  and  will  simi- 
larly react  on  it.  Parts  that  are  dissimilar  will  be  dissimi- 
larly acted  on  by  the  force ;  and  will  dissimilarly  react  on 
it.  Hence  the  permanently  effective  incident  force,  when 
wholly   or   partially    transformed    into   mechanical   motion 


seghegation.  4C3 

of  the  units,  will  produce  like  motions  in  units  that  are 
alike,  and  unlike  motions  in  units  that  are  unlike.  If 
then,  in  an  aggregate  containing  two  or  more  orders  of  mixed 
units,  those  of  the  same  order  will  be  moved  in  the  same  way, 
and  in  a  way  that  differs  from  that  in  which  units  of  other 
orders  are  moved,  the  respective  orders  must  segregate.  A 
group  of  like  things  on  \N'hich  are  impressed  motions  that  are 
alike  in  amount  and  direction,  must  be  transferred  as  a  group 
to  another  place,  and  if  they  are. mingled  with  some  group  of 
other  things,  on  which  the  motions  impressed  are  like  each 
other,  but  unlike  those  of  the  first  group  in  amount  or  di- 
rection or  both,  these  other  things  must  be  transferred  as  a 
group  to  some  other  place — the  mixed  units  must  undergo  a 
simultanoous  selection  and  separation. 

In  further  elucidation  of  this  process,  it  will  bo  well  hero 
to  set  down  a  few  instances  in  which  wo  may  sec  that,  other 
things  equal,  the  definiteness  of  the  separation  is  in  propor- 
tion to  the  definiteness  of  the  difference  between  the  units. 
Take  a  handful  of  any  pounded  substance,  containing  frag- 
ments of  all  sizes;  and  let  it  fall  to  the  ground  while  a 
gentle  breeze  is  blowing.  The  large  fragments  will  be 
collected  together  on  the  ground  almost  immediately  under 
the  hand ;  somewhat  smaller  fragments  will  be  carried  a 
little  to  the  leeward  ;  still  smaller  ones  a  little  further ;  and 
those  minute  particles  which  we  call  dust,  will  be  drifted  a 
long  way  before  they  reach  the  earth  :  that  is,  the  integration 
is  indefinite  where  the  difference  among  the  fragments  is 
indefinite,  though  the  divergence  is  greatest  where  tho 
difference  is  greatest.  If,  again,  the  liandful  be  made  up  of 
quite  distinct  orders  of  units — as  pebbles,  coarse  sand,  and 
dust — these  will,  under  like  conditions,  be  segregated  witli 
comparative  definiteness :  the  pebbles  will  drop  almost  verti- 
cally ;  the  sand  will  fall  in  an  inclined  direction,  and  deposit 
itself  within  a  tolerably  circumscribed  space  beyond  the 
pebbles  ;  while  the  dust  will  be  blown  almost  horizontally  to 
a  great  distance.     A  case  in  which  another  kind  of  force 


464  SEGEEQATION. 

comes  into  play,  will  still  better  illustrate  this  truth. 
Through,  a  mixed  aggregate  of  soluble  and  insoluble  sub- 
stances, let  water  slowly  percolate.  There  will  in  the  first 
place  be  a  distinct  parting  of  the  substances  that  are  the  most 
widely  contrasted  in  their  relations  to  the  acting  forces  :  the 
soluble  will  be  carried  away ;  the  insoluble  will  remain  be- 
hind. Further,  some  separation,  though  a  less  definite  one, 
will  be  effected  among  the  soluble  substances  ;  since  the  first 
part  of  the  current  will  remove  the  most  soluble  substances  in 
the  largest  amounts,  and  after  these  have  been  all  dissolved, 
the  current  will  still  continue  to  bring  out  the  remaining  less 
soluble  substances.  Even  the  undissolved  matters  will  have 
simultaneously  undergone  a  certain  segregation ;  for  the 
percolating  fluid  will  carry  down  the  minute  fragments  from 
among  the  large  ones,  and  will  deposit  those  of  small  specific 
gravity  in  one  place,  and  those  of  great  specific  gravity  in 
another.  To  complete  the  elucidation  we  must  glance 

at  the  obverse  fact ;  namely,  that  mixed  units  which  differ  but 
slightly,  are  moved  in  but  slightly-different  ways  by  incident 
forces,  and  can  therefore  be  separated  only  by  such  adjust- 
ments of  the  incident  forces  as  allow  slight  differences  to  be- 
come appreciable  factors  in  the  result.  This  truth  is  made 
manifest  by  antithesis  in  the  instances  just  given  ;  but  it  may 
be  made  much  more  manifest  by  a  few  such  instances  as 
those  which  chemical  analysis  supplies  in  abundance.  The 
parting  of  alcohol  from  water  by  distillation  is  a  good  one. 
Here  we  have  atoms  consisting  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen, 
mingled  with  atoms  consisting  of  oxygen,  hydrogen,  and 
carbon.  The  two  orders  of  atoms  have  a  considerable 
similarity  of  nature  :  they  similarly  maintain  a  fluid  form  at 
ordinary  temperatures  ;  they  similarly  become  gaseous  more 
and  more  rapidly  as  the  temperature  is  raised ;  and  they  boil 
at  points  not  very  far  apart.  Now  this  comparative  likeness 
of  the  atoms  is  accompanied  by  difficulty  in  segregating 
them.  If  the  mixed  fluid  is  unduly  heated,  much  water  dis- 
tils over  with  the  alcohol :   it  is  only  within  a  narrow  range 


BEGEEGATION.  405 

of  temperature,  tliat  the  one  set  of  atoms  are  driven  off  rather 
than  the  others ;  and  even  then  not  a  few  of  the  others  ac- 
company them;  The  most  interesting  and  instructivo 
example,  however,  is  furnished  by  certain  phenomena  of 
crystallization.  When  several  salts  that  have  little  analogy 
•  »f  constitution,  are  dissolved  in  the  same  body  of  water,  they 
are  separated  without  much  trouble,  by  crystallization  :  their 
respective  units  moved  towards  each  other,  as  physicists  sup- 
pose, by  polar  forces,  segregate  into  crystals  of  their  respect- 
ive kinds.  The  crystals  of  each  salt  do,  indeed,  usually  con- 
tain certaia  small  amounts  of  the  other  salts  present  in  the 
solution — especially  when  the  crystallization  has  been  rapid  ; 
but  from  these  other  salts  they  are  severally  freed  by  repeated 
re-solutions  and  crystallizations.  Mark  now,  however,  that  the 
reverse  is  the  case  when  the  salts  contained  in  the  same  body 
of  water  are  chemically  homologous.  The  nitrates  of  baryta 
and  lead,  or  the  sulphates  of  zinc,  soda,  and  magnesia,  unite 
in  the  same  crystals ;  nor  will  they  crystallize  separately  if 
these  crystals  be  dissolved  afresh,  and  afresh  crystallized, 
even  with  great  care.  On  seeking  the  cause  of  this  anomaly., 
clicmists  found  that  such  salts  were  isomorphous — that  their 
atoms,  though  not  chemically  identical,  were  identical  in  the 
proportions  of  acid,  base,  and  water,  composing  them,  and  in 
their  crystalline  forms ;  whence  it  was  inferred  that  their 
atoms  are  nearly  alike  in  structure.  Thus  is  clearly  illustrated 
the  truth,  that  units  of  unlike  kinds  are  selected  out  and 
separated  with  a  readiness  proportionate  to  the  degree  of 
their  unlikeness.  In  the  first  case  we  see  that  being  dis- 
similar in  their  forms,  but  similar  in  so  far  as  they  are 
soluble  in  water  of  a  certain  temperature,  the  atoms  segre- 
gate, though  imperfectly.  In  the  second  case  we  see  that  the 
atoms,  having  not  only  the  likeness  implied  by  solubility  in 
the  same  menstruum,  but  also  a  great  likeness  of  structure, 
do  not  segregate — are  sorted  and  parted  from  each  other  only 
under  quite  special  conditions,  and  then  very  incompletely. 
That  is,  the  incident  force  of  mutual  polarity  impresses  unliJ-e 


466  SEGREGATION. 

motions  on  the  mixed  units  in  proportion  as  they  are  unlike ; 
and  therefore,  in  proportion  as  they  are  unKke,  tends  to  de- 
posit them  in  separate  places. 

There  is  a  converse  cause  of  segregation,  which  it  is  Deed- 
less  here  to  treat  of  with  equal  fulness.  If  different  units 
acted  on  by  the  same  force,  must  be  differently  moved  ;  so, 
too,  must  units  of  the  same  kind  be  differently  moved  by 
different  forces.  Supposing  some  group  of  units  forming  part 
of  a  homogeneous  aggregate,  are  unitedly  exposed  to  a  force 
that  is  unlike  in  amount  or  direction  to  the  force  acting  on 
the  rest  of  the  aggregate ;  then  this  group  of  units  will 
separate  from  the  rest,  provided  that,  of  the  force  so  acting 
on  it,  there  remains  any  portion  not  dissipated  in  molecular 
vibrations,  nor  absorbed  in  producing  molecular  re- arrange- 
ments. After  all  that  has  been  said  above,  this  proposition 
needs  no  defence. 

Before  ending  our  preliminary  exposition,  a  comple- 
mentary truth  must  be  specified ;  namely,  that  mixed  forces 
are  segregated  by  the  reaction  of  uniform  matters,  just  as 
mixed  matters  are  segregated  by  the  action  of  uniform 
forces.  Of  this  truth  a  complete  and  sufiicient  illustration 
is  furnished  by  the  dispersion  of  refracted  light.  A  beam 
of  light,  made  up  of  ethereal  undulations  of  different  orders, 
is  not  uniformly  deflected  by  a  homogeneous  refracting 
body  ;  but  the  different  orders  of  undulations  it  contains,  are 
deflected  at  different  angles :  the  result  being  that  these 
different  orders  of  undulations  are  separated  and  integrated, 
and  so  produce  what  we  know  as  the  colours  of  the  spectrum. 
A  segregation  of  another  kind  occurs  when  rays  of  light 
traverse  an  obstructing  medium.  Those  rays  which  consist 
of  comparatively  short  undulations,  are  absorbed  before  those 
which  consist  of  comparatively  long  ones ;  and  the  red  rays, 
which  consist  of  the  longest  undulations,  alone  penetrate 
when  the  obstruction  is  very  great.  How,  conversely,  there 
is  produced  a  separation  of  like  forces  by  the  reaction  of  un- 
fike  matteia,  is  also  made  manifest  by  the  phenomena  of 


6EGKEGATI0N.  407 

refraction :  since  adjacent  and  parallel  beams  of  light,  fall- 
ing on,  and  passing  through,  unlike  substances,  are  made  to 
diverge. 

§  IQL  On  the  assumption  of  their  nebular  origin,  stars  and 
planets  exemplify  that  cause  of  material  segregation  last 
assigned — the  action  of  unlike  forces  on  like  units. 

In  a  preceding  chapter  (§  150)  we  saw  that  if  matter 
ever  existed  in  a  difPiised  form,  it  could  not  continue  uni- 
formly distributed,  but  must  break  up  into  masses.  It  was 
shown  that  in  the  absence  of  a  perfect  balance  of  mutual  at- 
tractions among  atoms  dispersed  through  unlimited  space, 
there  must  arise  breaches  of  continuity  throughout  the  ag- 
gregate formed  by  them,  and  a  concentration  of  it  towards 
centres  of  dominant  attraction.  Where  any  such,  breach  of 
continuity  occurs,  and  the  atoms  that  were  before  adjacent 
separate  from  each  other;  they  do  so  in  consequence  of  a 
difference  in  the  forces  to  which  they  are  respectively  sub- 
ject. The  atoms  on  the  one  side  of  the  breach  are  exposed 
to  a  certain  surplus  attraction  in  the  direction  in  which  they 
begin  to  move ;  and  those  on  the  other  to  a  sur^jlus  attrac- 
tion in  the  opposite  direction.  That  is,  the  adjacent  groupsT 
of  like  units  are  exposed  to  unlike  resultant  forces ;  and  ac- 
cordingly separate  and  integrate. 

The  formation  and  detachment  of  a  nebulous  ring,  illus- 
trates the  same  general  principle.  To  conclude,  as  Laplace 
did,  that  the  equatorial  portion  of  a  rotating  nebulous 
spheroid,  will,  during  concentration,  acquire  a  centrifugal 
force  sufficient  to  prevent  it  from  following  the  rest  of  the 
contracting  mass,  is  to  conclude  that  such,  portions  will 
remain  behind  as  are  in  common  subject  to  a  certain  differ- 
ential force.  The  line  of  division  between  the  ring  and 
the  spheroid,  must  be  a  line  inside  of  which,  the  aggregative 
force  is  greater  than  the  force  resisting  aggregation ;  and 
outside  of  which  the  force  resisting  aggregation  is  greater 
than  the   aggregative   force.      Hence  the  alleged  process 


iQS  SEGREGATION. 

conforms  fco  tlio  law  tliat  among  like  units,  exposed  to  unlike 
forces,  the  similarly  conditioned  part  from  tlie  dissimilarly 
conditioned. 

§  1G5.  Tliose  geologic  changes  usually  classed  as  aqueous, 
display  under  numerous  forms  tlie  segregation  of  unlike 
units  by  a  uniform  incident  force.  On  sea-shores,  the  waves 
are  ever  sorting-out  and  separating  the  mixed  materials 
against  which  they  break.  From  each  mass  of  fallen  cliff, 
the  rising  and  ebbing  tide  carries  away  all  those  particles 
which  are  so  small  as  to  remain  long  suspended  in  the 
water ;  and,  at  some  distance  from  shore,  deposits  them  in 
the  shape  of  fine  sediment.  Large  particles,  sinking  with 
comparative  rapidity,  are  accumulated  into  beds  of  sand 
•near  low  water-mark.  The  coarse  grit  and  small  pebbles 
collect  together  on  the  incline  up  which  the  breakers  rush. 
And  on  the  top  lie  the  larger  stones  and  boulders.  Still 
more  specific  segregations  may  occasionally  be  observed. 
Flat  pebbles,  produced  by  the  breaking  down  of  laminated 
rock,  are  sometimes  separately  collected  in  one  part  of  a 
shingle  bank.  On  this  shore  the  deposit  is  wholly  of  mud ; 
on  that  it  is  wholly  of  sand.  Here  we  find  a  sheltered  cove 
filled  with  small  pebbles  almost  of  one  size ;  and  there,  in  a 
curved  bay  one  end  of  which  is  more  exposed  than  the  other, 
we  see  a  progressive  increase  in  the  massiveness  of  the  stones 
as  we  walk  from  the  less  exposed  to  the  more  exposed  end. 
Trace  the  history  of  each  geologic  deposit,  and  we  are 
quickly  led  down  to  the  fact,  that  mixed  fragments  of 
matter,  difiering  in  their  sizes  or  weights,  are,  when  ex- 
posed to  the  momentum  and  friction  of  water,  joined 
with  the  attraction  of  the  Earth,  selected  from  each 
other,  and  united  into  groups  of  comparatively  like 
fragments.  And  we  see  that,  other  things  equal,  the  sepa- 
ration is  definite  in  proportion  as  the  difierences  of  the  units 
are  marked.  After  they  have  been  formed,  sedi- 

mentary strata  exhibit  segregations  of  another  kind.     The 


SEGREGATIOIT.  409 

flinfcs  and  tlie  nodules  of  iron  pyrites  tliat  are  found  in  clialk, 
as  well  as  tlie  silicious  concretions  wHch.  occasionally  occur 
in  limestone^  can  bo  interpreted  only  as  aggregations  of 
atoms  of  silex  or  sulpliuret  of  iron^  originally  diffused  almost 
uniformly  tlirougli  the  deposit,  but  gradually  collected  round 
ccrtaincentreSj  notwithstanding  tlie  solid  or  semi-solid  state  of 
tlio  surrounding  matter.  What  is  called  bog  iron-ore  supplies 
the  conditions  and  the  result  in  still  more  obvious  correlation. 
Among  igneous  changes  we  do  not  find  so  many  examples 
of  the  process  described.  AVhen  distinguishing  simple  and 
compound  evolution,  it  was  pointed  out  (§  102)  that  an  ex- 
cessive quantity  of  contained  molecular  motion,  prevents  per- 
manence in  those  secondary  re-distributions  which  make  evo- 
lution compound.  Nevertheless,  geological  phenomena  of 
this  order  are  not  barren  of  illustrations.  Whcro  the  mixed 
matters  composing  the  Earth's  crust  have  been  raised  to  a 
very  high  temperature,  segregation  habitually  takes  placo 
as  the  temperature  diminishes.  Sundry  of  the  substances 
that  escape  in  a  gaseous  form  from  volcanoes,  sublime  into 
crystals  on  coming  against  cool  surfaces;  and  solidifying  as 
these  substances  do,  at  different  temperatures,  they  are  de- 
posited at  different  parts  of  the  crevices  through  which  they 
are  emitted  together.  The  best  illustration,  however,  is 
furnished  by  the  changes  that  occur  during  the  slow  cooling 
of  igneous  rock.  When,  through  one  of  the  fractures  from 
time  to  time  made  in  the  solid  shell  wliich  forms  the  Earth's 
crust,  a  portion  of  the  molten  nucleus  is  extruded ;  and  when 
this  is  cooled  with  comparative  rapidity,  through  free  radia- 
tion and  contact  with  cold  masses;  it  forms  a  substance 
known  as  trap  or  basalt — a  substance  that  is  uniform  in 
texture,  though  made  up  of  various  ingredients.  But  when, 
not  escaping  through  the  superficial  strata,  such  a  portion  of 
the  molten  nucleus  is  slowly  cooled,  it  becomes  what  wo 
know  as  granite  :  the  mingled  particles  of  quartz,  feldspar, 
and  mica,  being  kept  for  a  long  time  in  a  fluid  and  semi- 
liuid  state — a,  state  of  comparative  mobility — ^undergo  those 


470  SEGREGATION. 

ohanges  of  position  wliicli  the  forces  impresstd  on  them  by 
their  fellow  units  necessitate.  Having  time  in  which  to 
generate  the  requisite  motions  of  the  atoms,  the  differential 
forces  arising  from  mutual  polarity,  segregate  the  quartz, 
feldspar,  and  mica,  into  crystals.  How  completely  this  is  de- 
pendent on  the  long-continued  agitation  of  the  mixed  par- 
ticles, and  consequent  long-continued  mobility  by  small  dif- 
ferential forces,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  in  granite  dykes, 
the  crystals  in  the  centre  of  the  mass,  where  the  fluidity  or 
semi-fluidity  continued  for  a  longer  time,  are  much  larger 
than  those  at  the  sides,  where  contact  with  the  neighbour- 
ing rock  caused  more  rapid  cooling  and  solidification. 

§  1G6.  The  actions  going  on  throughout  an  organism  are  so 
involved  and  subtle,  that  we  cannot  expect  to  identify  the  par- 
ticular forces  by  which  particular  segregations  are  effected. 
Among  the  few  instances  admitting  of  tolerably  definite  in- 
terpretation, the  best  are  those  in  which  mechanical  pressures 
and  tensions  are  the  agencies  at  work.  We  shall  discover 
several  on  studying  the  bony  frame  of  the  higher  animals. 

The  vertebral  column  of  a  man,  is  subject,  as  a  whole,  to 
certain  general  strains — the  weight  of  the  body,  together 
with  the  reactions  involved  by  all  considerable  muscular 
efforts;  and  in  conformity  with  this,  it  has  become  segregated 
as  a  whole.  At  the  same  time,  being  exposed  to  different 
forces  in  the  course  of  those  lateral  bondings  which  the 
movements  necessitate,  its  parts  retain  a  certain  separateness. 
And  if  we  trace  up  the  development  of  the  vertebral  column 
from  its  primitive  form  of  a  cartilaginous  cord  in  the  lowest 
fishes,  we  see  that,  throughout,  it  maintains  an  integration 
corresponding  to  the  unity  of  the  incident  forces,  joined  with 
a  division  into  segments  corresponding  to  the  variety  of 
the  incident  forces.  Each  segment,  considered  apart, 

exemplifies  the  truth  more  simply.  A  vertebra  is  not  a  single 
bone,  but  consists  of  a  central  mass  with  sundry  append- 
ages or  processes;    and  in  rudimentary  types  of  vertebraB, 


BEGEEGATION.  471 

these  appendages  are  quite  separate  from  the  central  mass, 
and,  indeed,  exist  before  it  makes  its  appearance.  But  these 
several  independent  bones,  constituting  a  primitive  spinal 
segment,  are  subject  to  a  certain  aggregate  of  forces 
which  agree  more  than  they  differ :  as  the  fulcrum  to 
a  group  of  muscles  habitually  acting  together,  they  per- 
petually undergo  certain  reactions  in  common.  And  ac- 
cordingly, we  see  that'  in  the  course  of  development  they 
gradually  coalesce.  StiU   clearer  is  the   illustration 

furnished  by  spinal  segments  that  become  fused  together 
where  they  are  together  exposed  to  some  predominant  strain. 
The  sacrum  consists  of  a  group  of  vertebrce  firmly  united. 
In  the  ostrich  and  its  congeners  there  are  from  seventeen  to 
twenty  sacral  vertebrae ;  and  besides  being  confluent  with  each 
other,  these  are  confluent  with  the  iliac  bones,  which  run  on 
each  side  of  them.  If  now  we  assume  these  vertebras  to  have 
been  originally  separate,  as  they  still  are  in  the  embryo  bird ; 
and  if  we  consider  the  mechanical  conditions  to  which  they 
must  in  such  case  have  been  exposed ;  we  shall  see  that  their 
union  results  in  th.e  alleged  way.  For  through  these  vertebra) 
tlie  entire  weight  of  the  body  is  transferred  to  the  legs :  the 
legs  support  the  pelvic  arch ;  the  pelvic  arcb  supports  the 
sacrum ;  and  to  the  sacrum  is  articulated  the  rest  of  the 
spine,  with  all  the  limbs  and  organs  attached  to  it.  Hence, 
if  separate,  the  sacral  vertebrae  must  be  held  firmly  together 
by  strongly-contracted  muscles  ;  and  must,  by  implication,  be 
prevented  from  partaking  in  those  lateral  movements  which 
the  other  vertebrae  undergo — they  must  be  subject  to  a  com- 
mon strain,  while  they  are  preserved  from  strains  which 
would  affect  them  differently;  and  so  they  fulfil  the  condi- 
tions under  which  segregation  occurs.  But  the  cases 
in  which  cause  and  effect  are  brought  into  the  most  obvious 
relation,  are  supplied  by  the  limbs.  The  metacarpal  bones 
(those  which  in  man  support  the  palm  of  the  hand)  are  separ- 
ate from  each  other  in  the  majority  of  mammalia :  the  separ- 
ate actions  of  the  toes  entailing  on  them  slight  amounts  of 


472  SEGREGATION. 

separate  movements.  *  This  is  not  so  however  in  the  ox-tribe 
and  the  horse-tribe.  In  the  ox-tribe,  only  the  middle  meta- 
carpals (third  and  fourth)  are  developed ;  and  these,  attain- 
ing massive  proportions,  coalesce  to  form  the  cannon  bone. 
In  the  horse-tribe,  the  segregation  is  what  we  may  distin- 
guish as  indirect :  the  second  and  fourth  metacarpals  arc 
present  only  as  rudiments  united  to  the  sides  of  the  third, 
while  the  third  is  immensely  developed ;  thus  forming  a 
cannon  bone  which  differs  from  that  of  the  ox  in  being  a 
single  cylinder,  instead  of  two  cylinders  fused  together. 
The  metatarsus  in  these  quadrupeds  exhibits  parallel 
changes.  Now  each  of  these  metamorphoses  occurs  where 
the  different  bones  grouped  together  have  no  longer  any 
different  functions,  but  retain  only  a  common  function.  The 
feet  of  oxen  and  horses  are  used  solely  for  locomotion — are 
not  put  like  those  of  unguiculate  mammals  to  purposes 
which  involve  some  relative  movements  of  the  metacarpals. 
Thus  there  directly  or  indirectly  results  a  single  mass  of  bone 
where  the  incident  force  is  single.  And  for  the  inference 
that  these  facts  have  a  causal  connexion,  we  find  confirma- 
tion throughout  the  entire  class  of  birds;  in  the  wings 
and  legs  of  which,  like  segregations  are  found  under  like 
conditions.  While  this  sheet  is  passing  through  the 

press,  a  fact  illustrating  this  general  truth  in  a  yet  more 
remarkable  manner,  has  been  mentioned  to  me  by  Prof. 
Huxley ;  who  kindly  allows  me  to  make  use  of  it  while  still 
unpublished  by  him.  The  Glypiodon,  an  extinct  mammal 
found  fossilized  in  South  America,  has  long  been  known  as  a 
large  uncouth  creature  allied  to  the  Armadillo,  but  having  a 
massive  dermal  armour  consisting  of  polygonal  plates  closely 
fitted  together  so  as  to  make  a  vast  box,  inclosing  the  body 
in  such  way  as  effectually  to  prevent  it  from  being  bent, 
laterally  or  vertically,  in  the  slightest  degree..  This  bony 
box,  which  must  have  weighed  several  hundi-ed- weight,  was 
supported  on  the  spinous  processes  of  the  vertebra),  and  on 
the  adjacent  bones  of  the  pelvic  and  thoracic  arches.     And 


SEGEEQATION. 


473 


the  significant  fact  now  to  be  noted,  is,  tliat  Lere,  where  the 
trunk  yertebrse  were  together  exposed  to  the  pressure  of  this 
heavy  dermal  armour,  at  the  same  time  that,  by  its  rigidity, 
they  were  preserved  from  all  relative  movements,  the  entire 
series  of  them  were  united  into  one  solid,  continuous  bone. 

The  formation  and  maintenance  of  a  species,  considered 
as  an  assemblage  of  similar  organisms,  is  interpretable  in 
an  analogous  way.  "We  have  already  seen  that  in  so  far  as 
the  members  of  a  species  are  subject  to  different  sets  of  inci- 
dent forces,  they  are  differentiated,  or  divided  into  varieties. 
And  here  it  remains  to  add  that  in  so  far  as  they  are  subject 
to  hke  sets  of  incident  forces,  they  are  segregated,  or  reduced 
to,  and  kept  in,  the  state  of  a  uniform  aggregate.  For  by  the 
process  of  "  natural  selection,"  there  is  a  continual  purifica- 
tion of  each  species  from  those  individuals  which  depart 
from  the  common  type  in  ways  that  unfit  them  for  the  con- 
ditions of  their  existence.  Consequently,  there  is  a  continual 
leaving  behind  of  those  individuals  which  are  in  all  respects 
fit  for  the  conditions  of  their  existence ;  and  are  therefore 
very  nearly  alike.  The  circumstances  to  which  any  species 
is  exposed,  being,  as  we  before  saw,  an  involved  combination 
of  incident  forces ;  and  the  members  of  the  species  having 
mixed  with  them  some  that  differ  more  than  usual  from  the 
average  structure  required  for  meeting  these  forces ;  it  re- 
sults that  these  forces  are  constantly  separating  such  diver- 
gent individuals  from  the  rest,  and  so  preserving  the  uni- 
formity of  the  rest — keeping  up  its  integrity  as  a  species. 
Just  as  the  changing  autumn  leaves  are  picked  out  by  the 
wind  from  among  the  green  ones  around  them,  or  just  as, 
to  use  Prof.  Huxley's  simile,  the  smaller  fragments  pass 
through  the  sieve  while  the  larger  are  kept  back;  so,  the 
uniform  incidence  of  external  forces  affects  the  members  of  a 
group  of  organisms  similarly  in  proportion  as  they  are  similar, 
and  differently  in  proportion  as  they  are  different ;  and  thus  is 
ever  segregating  the  like  by  parting  the  unlike  from  them. 
Whether  these  separated  members  are  killed  off,  as  mostly 


474  SEGEEQATION. 

happens,  or  whether,  as  otherwise  happens,  they  survive  and 
multiply  into  a  distinct  variety,  in  consequence  of  their 
ntness  to  certain  partially  unlike  conditions,  matters  not  to 
the  argument.  The  one  case  conforms  to  the  law,  that  the 
unlike  units  of  an  aggregate  are  sorted  into  their  kinds  and 
parted  when  uniformly  subject  to  the  same  incident  forces  ; 
and  the  other  to  the  converse  law,  that  the  like  units  of  an 
aggregate  are  parted  and  separately  grouped  when  subject  to 
different  incident  forces.  And  on  consulting  Mr.  Darwin's 
remarks  on  divergence  of  character,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
segregations  thus  caused  tend  ever  to  become  more  definite. 

§  167.  Mental  evolution  under  one  of  its  leading  aspects, 
we  found  to  consist  in  the  formation  of  groups  of  like  ob- 
jects and  like  relations — a  differentiation  of  the  various 
things  originally  confounded  together  in  one  assemblage, 
and  an  integration  of  each  separate  order  of  things  into  a 
separate  group  (§  163).  Here  it  remains  to  point  out  that 
while  unlikeness  in  the  incident  forces  is  the  cause  of  such 
differentiations,  likeness  in  the  incident  forces  is  the  cause  of 
such  integrations.  For  what  is  the  process  through  which 
classifications  are  established  ?  At  first,  in  common  with 
the  uninitiated,  the  botanist  recognizes  only  such  conven- 
tional divisions  as  those  which  agriculture  has  established — 
distinguishes  a  few  vegetables  and  cereals,  and  groups  the 
rest  together  into  the  one  miscellaneous  aggregate  of  wild 
plants.  How  do  these  wild  plants  become  grouped  in  his  mind 
into  orders,  genera,  and  species  ?  Each  plant  he  examines 
yields  him  a  certain  complex  impression.  Every  now  and 
then  he  picks  up  a  plant  like  one  before  seen ;  and  the  re- 
cognition of  it  is  the  production  in  him  of  a  like  connected 
group  of  sensations,  by  a  like  connected  group  of  attributes. 
That  is  to  say,  there  is  produced  throughout  the  nerves  con- 
cerned, a  combined  set  of  changes,  similar  to  a  combined  set 
of  changes  before  produced.  Considered  analytically,  each 
such  combined  set  of  changes  is  a  combined  set  of  moleciilar 


SEQEEaATION.  475 

modifications  wrought  in  the  affected  part  of  the  organism. 
On  every  repetition  of  the  impression,  a  like  combined  set  of 
molecular  modifications  is  superposed  on  the  previous  ones, 
and  makes  them  greater  :  thus  generating  an  internal  idea 
corresponding  to  these  similar  external  objects.  Meanwhile, 
another  kind  of  plant  produces  in  the  brain  of  the  botanist 
another  set  of  combined  changes  or  molecular  modifications 
— a  set  which  does  not  agree  with  and  deepen  the  one  we 
have  been  considering,  but  disagrees  with  it ;  and  by  repeti- 
tion of  such  there  is  generated  a  difierent  idea  answering  to 
a  different  species.  "What  now  is  the  nature  of  this 

process  expressed  in  general  terms  ?  On  the  one  hand  there 
are  the  like  and  unlike  things  from  which  severally  emanate 
the  groups  of  forces  by  which  we  perceive  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  the  organs  of  sense  and  percipient 
centres,  through  which,  in  the  course  of  observation,  these 
groups  of  forces  pass.  In  passing  through  these  organs  of 
sense  and  percipient  centres,  the  like  groups  of  forces  are  se- 
gregated, or  separated  from  the  unlike  groups  of  forces ;  and 
each  such  series  of  groups  of  forces,  parted  in  this  way  from 
others^  answering  to  an  external  genus  or  species,  constitutes 
a  state  of  consciousness  which  we  call  our  idea  of  the  genus 
or  species.  We  before  saw  that  as  well  as  a  separation  of 
mixed  matters  by  the  same  force,  there  is  a  separation  of 
mixed  forces  by  the  same  matter  ;  and  here  we  may  further 
see  that  the  unlike  forces  so  separated,  work  unlike  struct- 
ural changes  in  the  aggregate  that  separates  them — struct- 
ural changes  each  of  which  thus  represents,  and  is  equivalent 
to,  the  integrated  series  of  motions  that  has  produced  it. 

By  a  parallel  process,  the  connexions  of  co-existence  and 
sequence  among  impressions,  become  sorted  into  kinds  and 
grouped  simultaneously  with  the  impressions  themselves. 
When  two  phenomena  that  have  been  experienced  in  a 
given  order,  are  repeated  in  the  same  order,  those  nerves 
which  before  were  affected  by  the  transition  are  again  af- 
fected ;    and  such   molecular  modification   as  they  received 


470  SEGREGATION. 

from  tlie  first  motion  propagated  through  them,  is  increased 
by  this  second  motion  along  the  same  route.  Each  such  mo- 
tion works  a  structural  alteration,  which,  in  conformity  with 
the  general  law  Bet  forth  in  Chapter  IX.,  involves  a  diminu- 
tion of  the  resistance  to  all  such  motions  that  afterwards 
occur.  The  segregation  of  these  successive  motions  (or  more 
stiictly,  the  permanently  effective  portions  of  them  expended 
in  overcoming  resistance)  thus  becomes  the  cause  of,  and  the 
measure  of,  the  mental  connexion  between  the  impressions 
which  the  phenomena  produce.  Meanwhile,  phenomena  that 
are  recognized  as  different  from  these,  being  phenomena  that 
therefore  affect  different  nervous  elements,  will  have  their 
connexions  severally  represented  by  motions  along  othei 
routes ;  and  along  each  of  these  other  routes,  the  nervous  dis- 
charges will  severally  take  place  with  a  readiness  proportion- 
ate to  the  frequency  with  which  experience  repeats  the  con- 
nexion of  phenomena.  The  classification  of  relations  must 
hence  go  on  pari  passu  with  the  classification  of  the  related 
things.  In  common  with  the  mixed  sensations  received 
from  the  external  world,  the  mixed  relations  it  presents, 
cannot  be  impressed  on  the  organism  without  more  or  less 
segregation  of  them  resulting.  And  through  this  continu- 
ous sorting  and  grouping  together  of  changes  or  motions, 
which  constitutes  nervous  function,  there  is  gradually 
wrought  that  sorting  and  grouping  together  of  matter, 
which  constitutes  nervous  structure. 

§  128.  In  social  evolution,  the  collecting  together  of  the 
like  and  the  separation  of  the  unlike,  by  incident  forces,  is 
primarily  displayed  in  the  same  manner  as  we  saw  it  to  be 
among  groups  of  inferior  creatures.  The  human  races  tend 
to  differentiate  and  integrate,  as  do  raees  of  other  living 
forms.  Of  the  forces  which  effect  and  maintain  the 

segregations  of  mankind,  may  first  be  named  those  external 
ones  which  we  class  as  physical  conditions.  The  climate  and 
food  that  are  favourable  to  an  indigenous  people,  are  more  or 


SEGEEGATION.  477 

»ess  dstrimental  to  a  people  of  different  bodily  constitution, 
coming  from  a  remote  part  of  the  Earth.  In  tropical  re- 
gions the  northern  races  cannot  permanently  exist :  if  not 
killed  off  in  the  first  generation,  they  are  so  in  the  second ; 
and,  as  in  India,  can  maintain  their  footing  only  by  the 
artificial  process  of  continuous  immigration  and  emigratioUc 
That  is  to  say,  the  external  forces  acting  equally  on  the  in- 
habitants of  a  given  locality,  tend  to  expel  all  who  are  not 
of  a  certain  type ;  and  so  to  keep  up  the  integration  of  those 
who  are  of  that  type.  Though  elsewhere,  as  among  Euro- 
pean nations,  we  see  a  certain  amount  of  permanent  inter- 
mixture, otherwise  brought  about,  we  still  see  that  this  takes 
place  between  races  of  not  very  different  types,  that  are 
naturalized   to  not  very   different   conditions.  The 

other  forces  conspiring  to  produce  these  national  segrega- 
tions, are  those  mental  ones  which  show  themselves  in  the 
affinities  of  men  for  others  like  themselves.  Emigrants 
usually  desire  to  get  back  among  their  own  people ;  and 
where  their  desire  does  not  take  effect,  it  is  only  because  the 
restraining  ties  are  too  great.  Units  of  one  society  who 
are  obliged  to  reside  in  another,  very  generally  form 
colonies  in  the  midst  of  that  other — small  societies  of  their 
own.  Races  which  have  been  artificially  severed,  sliow 
strong  tendencies  to  re-unite.  Now  though  these  segrega- 
tions that  result  from  the  mutual  affinities  of  kindred  men , 
do  not  seem  interpretable  as  illustrations  of  the  general 
principle  above  enunciated,  they  really  are  thus  interpret* 
able.  When  treating  of  the  direction  of  motion  {§  80), 
it  was  shown  that  the  actions  performed  by  men  for  the 
satisfaction  of  their  wants,  were  always  motions  along  lines 
of  least  resistance.  The  feelings  characterizing  a  member 
of  a  given  race,  are  feelings  which  get  complete  satisfaction 
only  among  other  members  of  that  race  —  a  satisfaction 
partly  deriv^ed  from  sympathy  with  those  having  like  feel- 
ings, but  mainly  derived  from  the  adapted  social  conditions 
which  grow  up  where  such  feelings  prevail.     "When,  there- 


478  SEGREGATION. 

fore,  a  citizen  of  any  nation  is,  as  we  see,  attracted  towaids 
others  of  his  nation,  tlie  rationale  is,  that  certain  agencies 
which  we  call  desires,  move  him  in  the  direction  of  least 
resistance.  Human  motions,  like  all  other  motions,  being 
determined  by  the  distribution  of  forces,  it  follows  that 
such  segregations  of  races  as  are  not  produced  by  incident 
external  forces,  are  produced  by  forces  which  the  units  of 
the  races  exercise  on  each  other. 

During  the  development  of  each  society,  we  see  analogous 
segregations  caused  in  analogous  ways.  A  few  of  them  re- 
sult from  minor  natural  affinities  ;  but  those  most  important 
ones  which  constitute  political  and  industrial  organization, 
result  from  the  union  of  men  in  whom  similarities  have  been 
produced  by  education— *using  education  in  its  widest  sense, 
as  comprehending  all  processes  by  which  citizens  are  mould 
ed  to  special  functions.  Men  brought  up  to  bodily  labour, 
are  men  who  have  had  wrought  in  them  a  certain  lilj:eness — a 
likeness  which,  in  respect  of  their  powers  of  action,  obscures 
and  subordinates  their  natural  differences.  Those  trained  to 
brain-work,  have  acquired  a  certain  other  community  of 
character  which  makes  them,  as  social  units,  more  like  each 
other  than  like  those  trained  to  manual  occupations.  And 
there  arise  class-segregations  answering  to  these  super- 
induced likenesses.  Much  more  definite  segregations  take 
place  among  the  much  more  definitely  assimilated  members 
of  any  class  who  are  brought  up  to  the  same  calling.  Even 
where  the  necessities  of  their  work  forbid  concentration  in  one 
locality,  as  among  artizans  happens  with  masons  and  brick- 
layers, and  among  traders  happens  with  the  retail  distribut- 
ors, and  among  professionals  happens  with  the  medical 
men  ;  there  are  not  wanting  Operative  Builders  Unions,  and 
Grocers  Societies,  and  Medical  Associations,  to  show  that 
these  artificially- assimilated  citizens  become  integrated  as 
much  as  the  conditions  permit.  And  where,  as  among  the 
manufacturing  classes,  the  functions  discharged  do  not  re- 
quire the  dispersion  of  the  citizens  thus  artificially  assimi- 


BEQREGATION.  ..  479 

lated,  there  is  a  progressive  aggregation  of  them  in  special 
localities ;  and  a  consequent  increase  in  the  definiteness  of 
the  industrial  divisions.  If  now  we  seek  the  causes 

of  these  segregations,  considered  as  results  of  force  and  mo- 
tion, we  find  ourselves  brought  to  the  same  general  principle 
as  before.  This  likeness  generated  in  any  class  or  sub- 
class by  training,  is  an  aptitude  acquired  by  its  members 
for  satisfying  their  wants  in  like  ways.  That  is,  the 
occupation  to  which  each  man  has  been  brought  up,  has  be- 
come to  him,  in  common  with  those  similarly  brought  up,  a 
line  of  least  resistance.  Hence  under  that  pressure  which 
determines  aU  men  to  activity,  these  similarly-modified 
social  units  are  similarly  affected,  and  tend  to  take  similar 
courses.  If  then  there  be  any  locality  which,  either  by  its 
physical  peculiarities  or  by  peculiarities  wrought  on  it 
during  social  evolution,  is  rendered  a  place  where  a  certain 
kind  of  industrial  action  meets  with  less  resistance  than  else- 
where ;  it  follows  from  the  law  of  direction  of  motion  that 
those  social  units  who  have  been  moulded  to  this  kind  of 
industrial  action,  wiU  move  towards  this  place,  or  become 
integrated  there.  If,  for  instance,  the  proximity  of  coal  and 
iron  mines  to  a  navigable  river,  gives  to  Glasgow  a  certain 
advantage  in  the  building  of  iron  ships — if  the  total  labour 
required  to  produce  the  same  vessel,  and  get  its  equivalent 
in  food  and  clothing,  is  less  there  than  elsewhere;  a  con- 
centration of  iron-ship  builders  is  produced  at  Glasgow: 
either  by  keeping  there  the  population  born  to  iron-ship 
building ;  or  by-  immigration  of  those  elsewhere  engaged  in 
it;  or  by  both — a  concentration  that  would  be  still  more 
marked  did  not  other  districts  offer  counter-balancing  facili- 
ties. The  principle  equally  holds  where  the  occupation  is 
mercantile  instead  of  manufacturing.  Stock-brokers  cluster 
together  in  the  city,  because  the  amount  of  effort  to  bo 
severally  gone  through  by  them  in  discharging  their  func- 
tions, and  obtaining  their  profits,  is  less  there  than  in  other 
localities.  A  place  of  exchange  having  once  been  estab- 
Hahed,  becomes  a  place  where  the  resistance  to  be  overcome 


480  SEGEEGATIOK. 

by  eacli  is  less  than  elsewhere  ;  and  the  pursuit  of  the  com*se 
of  least  resistance  by  each,  involves  their  aggregation  around 
this  place. 

Of  course,  with  units  so  complicated  as  those  which  consti- 
tute a  society,  and  with  forces  so  involved  as  those  which 
move  them,  the  i*esulting  selections  and  separations  must 
be  far  more  entangled,  or  far  less  definite,  than  those  we 
have  hitherto  considered.  But  though  there  may  be  pointed 
out  many  anomalies  which  at  first  sight  seem  inconsistent 
with  the  alleged  law,  a  closer  study  shows  that  they  are  but 
subtler  illustrations  of  it.  For  men's  likenesses  being  of 
various  kinds,  lead  to  various  orders  of  segregation.  There 
are  likenesses  of  disposition,  likenesses  of  taste,  likenesses 
produced  by  intellectual  culture,  likenesses  that  result  from 
class-training,  likenesses  of  political  feeling;  and  it  needs 
but  to  glance  round  at  the  caste-divisions,  the  associations 
for  philanthropic,  scientific,  and  artistic  purposes,  the  reli- 
gious parties  and  social  cliques  ;  to  see  that  some  species  of 
likeness  among  the  component  members  of  each  body 
determines  their  union.  Now  the  difierent  segregative  pro- 
cesses by  traversing  one  another,  and  often  by  their  indirect 
antagonism,  more  or  less  obscure  one  another's  effects ;  and 
prevent  any  one  differentiated  class  from  completely  inte- 
grating. Hence  the  anomalies  referred  to.  But  if  this 
cause  of  incompleteness  be  duly  borne  in  mind,  social  segre- 
gations will  be  seen  to  conform  entirely  to  the  same  principle 
as  all  other  segregations.  Analysis  will  show  that  either  by 
external  incident  forces,  or  by  what  we  may  in  a  sense 
regard  as  mutual  polarity,  there  are  ever  being  produced  in 
society  segregations  of  those  units  which  have  either  a 
natural  hkeness  or  a  likeness  generated  by  training. 

§  169.  Can  the  general  truth  thus  variously  illustrated  be 
deduced  from  the  persistence  of  force,  in  common,  with  fore- 
going ones  ?  Probably  tho  exposition  at  the  beginning  of 
the  chapter  will  have  led  most  readers  to  conclude  that  it 
can  be  so  deduced. 


SEGEEGATION.  431 

The  abstract  propositions  involved  are  these  : — First,  that 
like  units,  subject  to  a  uniform  force  capable  of  producing 
motion  in  them,  will  be  moved  to  like  degrees  in  the  same 
direction.  Second,  that  like  units  if  exposed  to  unlike  forces 
capable  of  producing  motion  in  them,  will  be  differently 
moved — moved  either  in  different  directions  or  to  different 
degrees  in  the  same  direction.  Third,  that  unlike  units  if 
acted  on  by  a  uniform  force  capable  of  producing  motion  in 
them,  will  be  differently  moved — moved  either  in  different 
directions  or  to  different  degrees  in  the  same  direction. 
Fom'th,  that  the  incident  forces -themselves  must  be  affected 
in  analogous  ways :  like  forces  falling  on  like  units  must  be 
Bimilarly  modified  by  the  conflict ;  unlike  forces  falling  on 
like  units  must  be  dissimilarly  modified ;  and  like  forces  fall- 
ing on  unlike  units  must  be  dissimilarly  modified.  These 
propositions  admit  of  reduction  to  a  still  more  abstract  foi-m. 
TTiey  all  of  them  amount  to  this  : — that  in  the  actions  and 
reactions  of  force  and  matter,  an  unlikeness  in  either  of 
the  factors  necessitates  an  unlikeness  in  the  effects  ;  and  that 
in  the  absence  of  unlikeness  in  either  of  the  factors  the 
effects  must  be  alike. 

"When  thus  generalized,  the  immediate  dependence  of  these 
propositions  on  the  persistence  of  force,  becomes  obvious. 
Any  two  forces  that  are  not  alike,  are  forces  which  differ 
either  in  their  amoimts  or  directions  or  both ;  and  by  wha 
mathematicians  call  the  resolution  of  forces,  it  may  be  proved 
that  this  difference  is  constituted  by  the  presence  in  the  one 
of  some  force  not  present  in  the  other.  Similarly,  any  two 
units  or  portions  of  matter  which  are  unlike  in  size,  weight, 
form,  or  other  attribute,  can  be  known  by  us  as  unlike  only 
through  some  unlikeness  in  the  forces  they  impress  on  our 
conciousness  ;  and  hence  this  unlikeness  also,  is  constituted  by 
the  presence  in  the  one  of  some  force  or  forces  not  present  ii.. 
the  other.  Such  being  tjie  common  nature  of  these  unHke- 
nesses,  what  is  the  inevitable  corollary  ?  Any  unlikeness  in 
the  incident  forces,  where  the  things  acted  on  are  alike,  must 

generate  a  difference  between  the  effects ;    since  otherwise, 

22 


482  SEGREGATION. 

the  differential  force  produces  no  effect,  and  force  is  not  per- 
sistent. Any  unlikeness  in  the  things  acted  on,  where  the 
incident  forces  are  alike,  must  generate  a  difference  between 
the  effects  ;  since  otherwise,  the  differential  force  whereby 
these  things  are  made  unlikcj  produces  no  effect,  and  force  is 
not  persistent.  While,  conversely,  if  the  forces  acting  and 
the  things  acted  on,  are  alike,  the  effects  must  be  alike ; 
since  otherwise,  a  differential  effect  can  be  produced  without 
a  differential  cause,  and  force  is  not  persistent. 

Thus  these  general  truths  being  necessary  implications  of 
the  persistence  of  force,  all  the  re-distributions  above  traced 
out  as  characterizing  Evolution  in  its  various  phases,  are  also 
implications  of  the  persistence  of  force.  Such  portions  of 
the  permanently  effective  forces  acting  on  any  aggregate,  as 
produce  sensible  motions  in  its  parts,  cannot  but  work  the 
segregations  which  we  see  take  place.  If  of  the  mixed  units 
making  up  such  aggregate,  those  of  the  same  kind  have  like 
motions  impressed  on  them  by  a  uniform  force,  while  units  of 
another  kind  are  moved  by  this  uniform  force  in  ways  more 
or  less  imlike  the  ways  in  which  those  of  the  first  kind  are 
moved,  the  two  kinds  must  separate  and  integrate.  If  the 
units  are  alike  and  the  forces  unlike,  a  division  of  the  differ- 
ently affected  units  is  equally  necessitated.  Thus  there  in- 
evitably arises  the  demarcated  grouping  which  we  every- 
where see.  By  virtue  of  this  segregation  that  grows  ever  more 
decided  while  there  remains  any  possibility  of  increasing  it, 
the  change  from  uniformity  to  multiformity  is  accompanied 
by  a  change  from  indistinctness  in  the  relations  of  parts  to 
distinctness  in  the  relations  of  parts.  As  we  before  saw  that 
the  transformation  of  the  homogeneous  into  the  heterogene- 
ous is  inferable  from  that  ultimate  truth  which  transcends 
proof ;  so  we  here  see,  that  from  this  same  truth  is  inferable 
the  transformation  of  an  indefinite  homogeneity  into  a  dcfi- 
nito  heterogeneity. 


CHAPTER  XXn. 

EQUILIBRATION. 

§  170.  And  now  towards  what  do  these  changes  tendP 
Will  they  go  on  for  ever  ?  or  will  there  be  an  end  to  them  ? 
Can  things  increase  in  heterogeneity  through  all  future  time  ? 
or  must  there  be  a  degree  which  the  differentiation  and  in- 
tegration of  Matter  and  Motion  cannot  pass  ?  Is  it  possible 
for  this  universal  metamorphosis  to  proceed  in  the  same  gene- 
ral course  indefinitely  ?  or  does  it  work  towards  some  ulti- 
mate state,  admitting  no  further  modification  of  like  kind  ? 
The  last  of  these  alternative  conclusions  is  that  to  which  we 
are  inevitably  driven.  "Whether  we  watch  concrete  processes, 
or  whether  we  consider  the  question  in  the  abstract,  we  are 
alike  taught  that  Evolution  has  an  impassable  limit. 

The  re-distributions  of  matter  that  go  on  around  us,  are 
ever  being  brought  to  conclusions  by  the  dissipation  of  the 
motions  which  effect  them.  The  rolling  stone  parts  with 
portions  of  its  momentum  to  the  things  it  strikes,  and  finally 
comes  to  rest ;  as  do  also,  in  like  manner,  the  various  things 
it  has  struck.  Descending  from  the  clouds  and  trickling 
over  the  Earth's  surface  till  it  gathers  into  brooks  and  rivers, 
water,  still  running  towards  a  lower  level,  is  at  last  arrested 
by  the  resistance  of  other  water  that  has  reached  the  lowest 
level.  In  the  lake  or  sea  thus  formed,  every  agitation  raised 
by  a  wind  or  the  immersion  of  a  solid  body,  propagates  itself 
around  in  waves  that  diminish  as  they  widen,  and  gradually 


484  EQUILIBRATION. 

become  lost  to  observation  in  motions  communicated  to  tlie 
atmosphere  and  the  matter  on  the  shores.  The  impulse 
given  by  a  player  to  the  harp-string,  is  transformed  through 
its  vibrations  into  aerial  pulses ;  and  these,  spreading  on  all 
sides,  and  weakening  as  they  spread,  soon  cease  to  be  per- 
ceptible ;  and  finally  die  away  in  generating  thermal  undula- 
tions that  radiate  into  space.  Equally  in  the  cinder  that  falls 
out  of  the  fire,  and -in  the  vast  masses  of  molten  lava  ejected 
by  a  volcano,  we  see  that  the  molecular  agitation  known  to 
us  as  heat,  disperses  itself  by  radiation ;  so  that  however 
great  its  amount,  it  inevitably  sinks  at  last  to  the  same  degree 
as  that  existing  in  surrounding  bodies.  And  if  the  actions 
observed  be  electrical  or  chemical,  we  still  find  that  they  work 
themselves  out  in  producing  sensible  or  insensible  movements, 
that  are  dissipated  as  before  ;  until  quiescence  is  eventually 
reached.  The   proximate   rationale   of  the  process 

exhibited  under  these  several  forms,  lies  in .  the  fact 
dwelt  on  when  treating  of  the  Multiplication  of  Efiects,  that 
motions  are  ever  being  decomposed  into  divergent  motions, 
and  these  into  re-divergent  motions.  The  rolling  stone 
sends  off  the  stones  it  hits  in  directions  differing  more  or  less 
from  its  own ;  and  they  do  the  like  with  the  things  they  hit. 
Move  water  or  air,  and  the  movement  is  quickly  resolved  into 
radiating  movements.  The  heat  produced  by  pressure  in  a 
given  direction,  diffuses  itself  by  undulations  in  all  directions ; 
and  so  do  the  light  and  electricity  similarly  generated. 
That  ia  to  say,  these  motions  undergo  division  and  subdivi- 
sion ;  and  by  continuance  of  this  process  without  limit,  they 
are,  though  never  lost,  gradually  reduced  to  insensible  mo- 
tions. 

In  all  cases  then,  there  is  a  progress  toward  equilibration. 
That  universal  co- existence  of  antagonist  forces  which,  as  we 
before  saw,  necessitates  the  universality  of  rhythm,  and 
which,  as  we  before  saw,  necessitates  the  decomposition  of 
every  force  into  divergent  forces,  at  the  same  time  necessi- 
tates the  ultimate  establishment  of  a  balance.     Every  motion 


EQUILIBRATION.  485 

being  motion  under  resistance,  is  continually  suffering  de- 
ductions ;  and  tliese  unceasing  deductions  finally  result  in  the 
cessation  of  the  motion. 

The  general  truth  thus  illustrated  under  its  simplest 
aspect,  we  must  now  look  at  under  those  more  complex 
ispects  it  usually  presents  throughout  ^Nature.  In  nearly  all 
3ases,  the  motion  of  an  aggregate  is  compound  ;  and  the  equi- 
libration of  each  of  its  components,  being  carried  on  inde- 
pendently, does  not  affect  the  rest.  The  ship's  bell  that  has 
ceased  to  vibrate,  still  continues  those  vertical  and  lateral 
oscillations  caused  by  the  ocean-swell.  The  water  of  the 
smooth  stream  on  whose  surface  have  died  away  the  undu- 
lations caused  by  the  rising  fish,  moves  as  fast  as  before 
onward  to  the  sea.  The  arrested  bullet  travels  with 
undiminished  speed  round  the  Earth's  axis.  And  were  the 
rotation  of  the  Earth  destroyed,  there  would  not  be  implied 
any  diminution  of  the  Earth's  movement  with  respect  to  the 
Sun  and  other  external  bodies.  So  that  in  every  case,  what 
we  regard  as  equilibration  is  a  disappearance  of  some  one  or 
more  of  the  many  movements  which  a  body  possesses,  while 
its  other  movements  continue  as  before.  That  this 

process  may  be  duly  realized  and  the  state  of  things  towards 
which  it  tends  fully  understood,  it  will  be  well  here  to  cite  a 
case  in  which  we  may  watch  this  successive  equilibration  of 
combined  movements  more  completely  than  we  can  do  in 
those  above  instanced.  Our  end  wiU  best  be  served,  not  by 
the  most  imposing,  but  by  the  most  familiar  example.  Let 
us  take  that  of  the  spinning  top.  When  the  string  which 
has  been  wrapped  round  a  top's  axis  is  violently  drawn  off, 
and  the  top  faUs  on  to  the  table,  it  usually  happens  that  be- 
sides the  rapid  rotation,  two  other  movements  are  given  to  it. 
A  slight  horizontal  momentum,  unavoidably  impressed  on  it 
when  leaving  the  handle,  carries  it  away  bodily  from  the 
place  on  which  it  drops ;  and  in  consequence  of  its  axis  being 
more  or  less  inclined,  it  falls  into  a  certain  oscilla- 
tion, described  by  the  expressive  though  inelegant  word — 


486  EQUILIBRATION. 

"  wabbling."  These  two  subordinate  motions,  variable  in 
their  proportions  to  each  other  and  to  the  chief  motion,  are 
commonly  soon  brought  to  a  close  by  separate  processes  of 
equilibration.  The  momentum  which  carries  the  top  bodily 
along  the  table,  resisted  somewhat  by  the  air,  but  mainly  by 
the  irregularities  of  the  surface,  shortly  disappears  ;  and  the 
top  thereafter  continues  to  spin  on  one  spot.  Meanwhile,  in 
consequence  of  that  opposition  which  the  axial  momentum  of 
a  rotating  body  makes  to  any  change  in  the  plane  of  rotation, 
(so  beautifully  exhibited  by  the  gyroscope,)  the  "  wabbling" 
diminishes;  and  like  the  other  is  quickly  ended.  These 
minor  motions  having  been  dissipated,  the  rotatory  motion, 
interfered  with  only  by  atmospheric  resistance  and  the  fric- 
tion of  the  pivot,  continues  some  time  with  such  uniformity 
that  the  top  appears  stationary  :  there  being  thus  temporarily 
established  a  condition  which  the  French  mathematicians 
have  termed  equilibrium  mobile.  It  is  true  that  when  the 
axial  velocity  sinks  below  a  certain  point,  new  motions  com- 
mence, and  increase  till  the  top  falls ;  but  these  are  merely 
incidental  to  a  case  in  which  the  centre  of  gravity  is  above 
the  point  of  support.  Were  the  top,  having  an  axis  of 
steel,  to  be  suspended  from  a  surface  adequately  magnetized, 
all  the  phenomena  described  would  be  displayed,  and  the 
moving  equilibrium  having  been  once  arrived  at,  would  con- 
tinue until  the  top  became  motionless,  without  any  further 
change  of  position.  Now  the  facts  which  it  behoves 

us  here  to  observe,  are  these.  First,  that  the  various  motions 
which  an  aggregate  possesses  are  separately  equilibrated: 
those  which  are  smallest,  or  which  meet  with  the  greatest 
resistance,  or  both,  disappearing  first ;  and  leaving  at  last, 
that  which  is  greatest,  or  meets  with  least  resistance,  or  both. 
Second,  that  when  the  aggregate  has  a  movement  of  its  part? 
with  respect  to  each  other,  which  encounters  but  little  external 
resistance,  there  is  apt  to  be  established  an  equilibrium 
mobile.  Third,  that  this  moving  equilibrimn  eventually 
lapses  into  complete  equilibrium. 


EQUILIBRATION  487 

Fully  to  comprelieiid  the  process  of  equilibration,  is  not 
easy ;  since  we  have  simultaneously  to  contemplate  various 
phases  of  it.  The  best  course  will  be  to  glance  separately  at 
what  we  may  conveniently  regard  as  its  four  different 
orders.  The  first  order  includes  the  comparatively 

simple  motions,  as  those  of  projectiles,  which  are  not  pro- 
longed enough  to  exhibit  their  rhj^thmical  character  ;  but 
which,  being  quickly  divided  and  subdivided  into  motions 
communicated  to  other  portions  of  matter,  are  presently  dis- 
sipated in  the  rhythm  of  ethereal  imdulations.  In 
the  second  order,  comprehending  the  various  kinds  of  vi- 
bration or  oscillation  as  usually  witnessed,  the  motion  is  used 
up  in  generating  a  tension  which,  having  become  equal  to  it  or 
momentarily  equilibrated  with  it,  thereupon  produces  a  mo- 
tion in  the  opposite  direction,  that  is  subsequently  equili- 
brated in  like  manner  :  thus  causing  a  visible  rhythm,  that 
is,  however,  soon  lost  in  in\isible  rhythms.  The  third 
order  of  equilibration,  not  hitherto  noticed,  obtains  in  those 
aggregates  which  continually  receive  as  much  motion  as  they 
expend.  The  steam  engine  (and  especially  that  kind  which 
feeds  its  own  furnace  and  boiler)  supplies  an  example.  Here 
the  force  from  moment  to  moment  dissipated  in  overcoming 
the  resistance  of  the  machinery  driven,  is  from  moment  to 
moment  re-placed  from  the  fuel;  and  the  balance  of  the 
two  is  maintained  by  a  raising  or  lowering  of  the  expenditure 
according  to  the  variation  of  the  supply :  each  increase  or 
decrease  in  the  quantity  of  steam,  resulting  in  a  rise  or  fall 
of  the  engine's  movement,  such  as  brings  it  to  a  balance  with 
the  increased  or  decreased  resistance.  This,  which  we  may 
fitly  call  the  dependent  moving  equilibrium,  should  be 
specially  noted ;  since  it  is  one  that  we  shall  commonly  meet 
with  throughout  various  phases  of  Evolution.  The 
equilibration  to  be  distinguished  as  of  the  fourth  order,  is  the 
Independent  or  perfect  moving  equilibrium.  This  we  see 
illustrated  in  the  rhythmical  motions  of  the  Solar  System ; 
which,  being  resisted  only  by  a  medium  of  inappreciabli 


488 


EQUILIBRATION. 


density,  undergo  no  sensible  diminution  in  sucli  periods  of 
time  as  we  can  measure. 

All  these  kinds  of  oquilibration  may,  however,  from  the 
highest  point  of  view,  be  regarded  as  different  modes  of  one 
kind.  For  in  every  case  the  balance  arrived  at  is  relative, 
and  not  absolute — is  a  cessation  of  the  motion  of  some  par- 
ticular body  in  relation  to  a  certain  point  or  points,  in- 
volving neither  the  disappearance  of  the  relative  motion  lost, 
which  is  simply  transformed  into  other  motions,  nor  a  dimi- 
nution of  the  body's  motions  with  respect  to  other  points. 
Thus  understanding  equilibration,  it  manifestly  includes  that 
equilihrium  mohihy  which  at  first  sight  seems  of  another 
nature.  For  any  system  of  bodies  exhibiting,  like  those  of 
the  Solar  Sj^stem,  a  combination  of  balanced  rhythms,  has 
this  peculiarity ; — that  though  the  constituents  of  the  system 
have  relative  movements,  the  system  as  a  whole  has  no 
movement.  The  centre  of  gravity  of  the  entire  group  re- 
mains fixed.  Whatever  quantity  of  motion  any  member 
of  it  has  in  any  direction,  is  from  moment  to  moment 
counter-balanced  by  an  equivalent  motion  in  some  other 
part  of  the  group  in  an  opposite  direction;  and  so  the 
aggregate  matter  of  the  group  is  in  a  state  of  rest.  "Whence 
it  follows  that  the  arrival  at  a  state  of  moving  equilibrium, 
is  the  disappearance  of  some  movement  which  the  ag- 
gregate had  in  relation  to  external  things,  and  a  con- 
tinuance of  those  movements  only  which  the  different  parts 
of  the  aggregate  have  in  relation  to  each  other.  Thus 
generalizing  the  process,  it  becomes  clear  that  all  forms  of 
equilibration  are  intrinsically  the  same ;  since  in  every 
aggregate,  it  is  the  centre  of  gravity  only  that  loses  its 
motion :  the  constituents  always  retaining  some  motion  with 
respect  to  each  other — the  motion  of  molecules  if  none  else. 
I ] very  equilibrium  commonly  regarded  as  absolute,  is  in  one 
sense  a  moving  equilibrium  ;  because  along  with  a  motion- 
less state  of  the  whole  there  is  always  some  relative  move- 
ment of  its  insensible  parts.    And^  conversely,  every  moving 


EQUILIBRATION.  48i^ 

eqnilibrmm  may  be  in  one  sense  regarded  as  absolute ;  be- 
cause tbe  relative  movements  of  its  sensible  parts  are  accom- 
panied by  a  motionless  state  of  tbe  wliole. 

Something  has  still  to  be  added  before  closing  these 
some wbat  ■  too  elaborate  preliminaries.  The  reader  must 
now  especially  note  two  leading  truths  brought  out  by  the 
foregoing  exposition :  the  one  concerning  the  ultimate,  or 
rather  the  penultimate,  state  of  motion  which  the  processes  de- 
scribed tend  to  bring  about ;  the  other  concerning  the  concom- 
itant distribution  of  matter.  This  penultimate  state 
of  motion  is  the  moving  equilibrium  ;  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
tends  to  arise  in  an  aggregate  having  compound  motions,  as  a 
transitional  state  on  the  way  towards  complete  equilibrium. 
Throughout  Evolution  of  all  kinds,  there  is  a  continual  ap- 
proximation to,  and  more  or  less  complete  maintenance  of,  this 
moving  equilibrium.  As  in  the  Solar  System  there  has  been 
established  an  indepcTident  moving  equilibrium — an  equili- 
brium such  that  the  relative  motions  of  the  constituent  parts 
are  continually  so  counter-balanced  by  opposite  motions, 
that  the  mean  state  of  the  whole  aggregate  never  varies ;  so 
is  it,  though  in  a  less  distinct  manner,  with  each  form  of  de- 
pendent moving  equilibrium.  The  state  of  things  exhibited 
in  the  cycles  of  terrestrial  changes,  in  the  balanced  functions 
of  organic  bodies  that  have  reached  their  adult  forms,  and  in 
the  acting  and  re-acting  processes  of  fully- developed  socie- 
ties, is  similarly  one  characterized  by  compensating  oscilla- 
tions. The  involved  combination  of  rhythms  seen  in  each 
of  these  cases,  has  an  average  condition  which  remains  prac- 
tically constant  during  the  deviations  ever  taking  place  on 
opposite  sides  of  it.  And  the  fact  which  we  have  here  par- 
ticularly to  observe,  is,  that  as  a  corollary  from  the  general 
law  of  equilibration  above  set-  forth,  the  evolution  of  every 
aggregate  must  go  on  until  this  equilibrium  mobile  is  estab 
ILshed;  since,  as  we  have  seen,  an  excess  of  force  which 
the  aggregate  possesses  in  any  direction,  must  eventually 
bo  expended  in   overcoming  resistances  to  change  in  that 


490  EQUILIBRATION. 

direction :  leaving  beliind  only  those  movements  vrhich 
compensate  each  other,  and  so  form  a  moving  equili* 
brium.  Respecting  the   structural   state   simultane- 

ously reached,  it  must  obviously  be  one  presenting  an  ar- 
rangement of  forces  that  counterbalance  all  the  forces  to 
which  the  aggregate  is  subject.  So  long  as  there  remains  a 
residual  force  in  any  direction — ^be  it  excess  of  a  force  exer- 
cised by  the  aggregate  on  its  environment,  or  of  a  force 
exercised  by  its  environment  -on  the  aggregate,  equilibrium 
does  not  exist ;  and  therefore  the  re- distribution  of  matter 
must  continue.  "Whence  it  follows  that  the  limit  of  hetero- 
geneity towards  which  every  aggregate  progresses,  is  the 
formation  of  as  many  specializations  and  combinations  of 
parts,  as  there  are  specialized  and  combined  forces  to  be  met. 

§  ni.  Those  successively  changed  forms  which,  if  the 
nebular  hypothesis  be  granted,  must  have  arisen  during 
:he  evolution  of  the  Solar  System,  were  so  many  transitional 
kinds  of  moving  equilibrium ;  severally  giving  place  to  more 
permanent  kinds  on  the  way  towards  complete  equilibration. 
Thus  the  assumption  of  an  oblate  spheroidal  figure  by  con- 
densing nebulous  matter,  was  the  assumption  of  a  temporary 
and  partial  moving  equilibrium  among  the  component  parts 
—a  moving  equilibrium  that  must  have  slowly  grown 
more  settled,  as  local  conflicting  movements  were  dis- 
sipated. In  the  formation  and  detachment  of  the 
nebulous  rings,  which,  according  to  this  hypothesis,  from  time 
to  time  took  place,  we  have  instances  of  progressive  equili- 
bration ending  in  the  establishment  of  a  complete  moving 
equilibrium.  For  the  genesis  of  each  such  ring,  implies  a 
perfect  balancing  of  that  aggregative  force  which  the 
whole  spheroid  exercises  on  its  equatorial  portion,  by  that 
centrifugal  force  which  the  equatorial  portion  has  acquired 
during  previous  concentration :  so  long  as  these  two  forces 
are  not  equal,  the  equatorial  portion  follows  the  contracting 
mass  •  but  as  soon  as  the  second  force  has  increased  up  to  an 


EQUILIBRATION.  491 

equality  with  the  first,  the  equatorial  portion  can  follow  no 
further,  and  remains  behind.  While,  however,  the  resulting 
ring,  regarded  as  a  whole  connected  by  forces  with  external 
wholes,  has  reached  a  state  of  moving  equilibrium ;  its  parts 
are  not  balanced  with  respect  to  each  other.  As  we 
before  saw  (§  150)  the  probabilities  against  the  mainte- 
nance of  an  annular  form  by  nebulous  matter,  are  immense : 
from  the  instability  of  the  homogeneous,  it  is  inferrable  that 
nebulous  matter  so  distributed  must  break  up  into  portions ; 
and  eventually  concentrate  into  a  single  mass.  That  is  to 
say,  the  ring  must  progress  towards  a  moving  equilibrium 
of  a  more  complete  kind,  during  the  dissipation  of  that 
motion  which  maintained  its  particles  in  a  diffused  form : 
leaving  at  length  a  planetary  bod}^,  attended  perhaps  by  a 
group  of  minor  bodies,  severally  having  residuary  relative 
motions  that  are  no  longer  resisted  by  sensible  media ;  and 
there  is  thus  constituted  an  equilibrium  mobile  that  is  all  but 
absolutely  perfect.* 

Hypothesis  aside,  the  principle  of  equilibration  is  still 
perpetually  illustrated  in  those  minor  changes  of  state  which 
the  Solar  System  is  undergoing.  Each  planet,  satellite, 
and  comet,  exhibits  to  us  at  its  aphelion  a  momentary  equiK- 

♦  Sir  David  Brewster  has  recently  been  citing  with  approyal,  a  calculation 
by  M.  Babinet,  to  the  effect  that  on  the  hypothesis  of  nebular  genesis,  the 
matter  of  the  Sun,  when  it  filled  the  Earth's  orbit,  must  have  taken  3181  yeara 
to  rotate ;  and  that  therefore  the  hypothesis  cannot  be  true.  This  calculation  of 
M.  Babinet  may  pair-off  with  that  of  M,  Comte,  who,  contrariwise,  made  the 
time  of  this  rotation  agree  very  nearly  with  the  Earth's  period  of  revolution 
round  the  Sun ;  for  if  ISf.  Comte's  calculation  involved  a  peiitio  principii,  that  of 
M.  Babinet  is  manifestly  based  on  two  assumptions,  both  of  which  are  gratuitous, 
and  one  of  them  totally  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  to  be  tested.  lie  has  evi- 
dently proceeded  on  the  current  supposition  respecting  the  Sun's  internal  density, 
which  is  not  proved,  and  from  which  there  are  reasons  for  dissenting;  and 
he  has  evidently  taken  for  granted  that  all  parts  of  the  nebulous  spheroid,  when  it 
filled  the  Earth's  orbit,  had  the  same  angular  velocity ;  whereas  if  (as  is  implied 
in  the  nebular  hypothesis,  rationally  understood)  this  spheroid  resulted  from  the 
concentration  of  far  more  widely-diffused  matter,  the  angular  velocity  of  ita 
equatorial  portion  vould  obviously  be  immensely  greater  than  that  of  its  central 
portion. 


192  EQUILIBRATION. 

brium  between  tbat  force  wbich  urges  it  further  away  from 
its  primary,  and  that  force  wliicTi  retards  its  retreat;  since 
tlie  retreat  goes  on  until  the  last  of  tbese  forces  exactly 
counterpoises  the  first.  In  like  manner  at  perihelion  a  con- 
verse equilibrium  is  momentarily  established.  The  varia- 
tion of  each  orbit  in  size,  in  eccentricity,  and  in  the  position 
of  its  plane,  has  similarly  a  limit  at  which  the  forces  pro- 
ducing change  in  the  one  direction,  are  equalled  by  those 
antagonizing  it ;  and  an  opposite  limit  at  which  an  opposite 
arrest  takes  place.  Meanwhile,  each  of  these  simple  perturb- 
ations, as  well  as  each  of  the  complex  ones  resulting  from 
their  combination,  exhibits,  besides  the  temporary  equilibra- 
tion at  each  of  its  extremes,  a  certain  general  equilibra- 
tion of  compensating  deviations  on  either  side  of  a  mean 
state.  That  the  moving  equilibrium  thus  constituted, 

tends,  in  the  course  of  indefinite  time,  to  lapse  into  a  complete 
equilibrium,  by  the  gradual  decrease  of  planetary  motions 
and  eventual  integration  of  all  the  separate  masses  com- 
posing the  Solar  System,  is  a  belief  suggested  by  certain 
observed  cometary  retardations,  and  entertained  by  some  of 
high  authority.  The  received  opinion  that  the  appreciable 
diminution  in  the  period  of  Encke's  comet,  implies  a  loss  of  mo- 
mentum caused  by  resistance  of  the  ethereal  medium,  commits 
astronomers  who  hold  it,  to  the  conclusion  that  this  same  re- 
sistance must  cause  a  loss  of  planetary  motions — a  loss  which, 
infinitesimal  though  it  may  be  in  such  periods  as  we  can 
measure,  will,  if  indefinitely  continued,  bring  these  motions 
to  a  close.  Even  should  there  be,  as  Sir  John  Herschel  sug- 
orests,  a  rotation  of  the  ethereal  medium  in  the  same  direction 
with  the  planets,  this  arrest,  though  immensely  postponed, 
would  not  be  absolutely  prevented.  Such  an  eventuality, 
however,  must  in  any  case  be  so  inconceivably  remote  as 
to  have  no  other  than  a  speculative  interest  for  us.  It  is 
referred  to  here,  simply  as  illustrating  the  still-continued 
tendency  towards  complete  equilibrium,  through  the  still- 


EQUILIBRATION.  493 

Continued  dissipation  of  sensible  motion,  or  transformation  of 
it  into  insensible  motion. 

But  there  is  another  species  of  equilibration  going  on  in 
the  Solar  System,  with  which  we  are  more  nearly  concerned — 
the  equilibration  of  that  molecular  motion  known  as  heat. 
The  tacit  assumption  hitherto  current,  that  the  Sun  can  con- 
tinue to  give  off  an  undiminished  amount  of  light  and  heat 
through  all  future  time,  is  fast  being  abandoned.     Involv- 
ing as  it  doesj  under  a  disguise,  the  conception  of  power  pro- 
duced out  of  nothing,  it  is  of  the  same  order  as  the  belief  that 
misleads  perpetual-motion  schemers.     The  spreading  recog- 
nition of  the  truth  that  force  is  persistent,  and  that  conse- 
quently whatever  force  is  manifested  under  one  shape  must 
previously  have  existed  under  another  shape,  is  carrying  with 
it  a  recognition  of  the  truth  that  the  force  known  to  us  ir. 
solar  radiations,  is  the  changed  form  of  some  other  force  of 
which  the  Sun  is  the  seat ;  and  that  by  the  gradual  dissipa- 
tion of  these  radiations  into  space,  this  other  force  is  being 
slowly  exhausted.  The  aggregative  force  by  which  the  Sun's 
substance  is  dra^m  to  his  centre  of  gravity,  is  the  only  one 
which  established  physical  laws  warrant  us  in  suspecting  to  be 
the  correlate  of  the  forces  thus  emanating  from  him :  the  only 
source  of  a  known  kind  that  can  be  assigned  for  the  insensible 
motions  constituting  solar  light  and  heat,  is  the  sensible motrryri 
which  disappears  during  the  progressing  concentration  of  the 
Sun's  substance.  AVe  before  saw  it  to  be  a  corollary  from  the 
nebular  hypothesis,  that  there  is  such  a  progressing  concentra- 
tion of  the  Sun's  substance.  And  here  remains  to  be  added  the 
further  corollary,  that  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  smaller  mem- 
bers of  the  Solar  System,  the  heat  generated  by  concentration, 
long  ago  in  great  part  radiatedinto  space,  has  left  only  a  central 
residue  that  now  escapes  but  slowly ;  so  in  the  case  of  that  im- 
mensely larger  mass  forming  the  Sun,  the  immensely  greater 
quantity  of  heat  generated  and  stiU  in  process  of  rapid  diffusion, 
must,  as  the  concentration  approaches  its  limit,  diminish  in 


4:94  EQUILIBRATION. 

amount,  and  eventually  leave  only  an  inappreciable  intemul 
remnant.  With   or  without  the  accompaniment    of 

that  hypothesis  of  nebular  condensation,  whence,  as  we  see, 
it  naturally  follows,  the  doctrine  that  the  Sun  is  gradually 
losing  his  heat,  has  now  gained  considerable  currency ;  and 
calculations  have  been  made,  both  respecting  the  amount  of 
heat  and  light  already  radiated,  as  compared  with  the  amount 
that  remains,  and  respecting  the  period  during  which  active 
radiation  is  likely  to  continue.  Prof.  Helmholtz  estimates, 
that  since  the  time  when,  according  to  the  nebular  hj^pothesis, 
the  matter  composing  the  Solar  System  extended  to  the  orbit 
of  Neptune,  there  has  been  evolved  by  the  arrest  of  sensible 
motion,  an  amount  of  heat  454  times  as  great  as  that  which 
the  Sun  still  has  to  give  out.  He  also  makes  an  approximate 
estimate  of  the  rate  at  which  this  remaining  -j-^th  is  being 
diffused :  showing  that  a  diminution  of  the  Sun's  diameter  to 
the  extent  of  -i-o,oTro>  would  produce  heat,  at  the  present  rate, 
for  more  than  2000  years  ;  or  in  other  words,  that  a  contrac- 
tion of  YT.Tnro.TTo^  ^^  ^^^  diameter,  suffices  to  generate  the 
amount  of  light  and  heat  annually  emitted ;  and  that  thus,  at 
the  present  rate  of  expenditure,  the  Sun's  diameter  will  di- 
minish by  something  like  -^V  in  the  lapse  of  the  next  million 
years.*  Of  course  these  conclusions  are  not  to  be  considered 
as  more  than  rude  approximations  to  the  truth.  Until  quite 
recently,  we  have  been  totally  ignorant  of  the  Sun's  chemical 
composition ;  and  even  now  have  obtained  but  a  superficial 
knowledge  of  it.  We  know  nothing  of  his  internal  structure  ; 
and  it  is  quite  possible  (probable,  I  believe,)  that  the 
assumptions  respecting  central  density,  made  in  the  foregoing 
estimates,  are  wrong.  But  no  uncertainty  in  the  data  on 
which  these  calculations  proceed,  and  no  consequent  error  in 
the  inferred  rate  at  which  the  Sun  is  expending  his  reserve 
of  force,  militates  against  the  general  proposition  that  this 

*  See  paper  "  On  tlie  Inter-action  of  Natural  Forces,"  by  Prof.  Helmholtz, 
translated  by  Prof.  Tyndall,  and  publisbed  in  the  Fhilosophical  Magazine^  suppie- 
'jDent  to  Vol.  XI.  fourtb  eciiee. 


EQUILIBRATION.  •  495 

reserve  of  force  is  being  expended ;  an^  must  in  time  be  ex- 
hausted. Though  the  residue  of  undiffused  motion  in  the  Sun, 
may  be  much  greater  than  is  above  concluded ;  though  tho 
rate  of  radiation  cannot,  as  assumed,  continue  at  a  miiform 
rate,  but  must  eventually  go  on  with  slowly- decreasing 
rapidity  ;  and  though  the  period  at  which  the  Sun  will  cease 
to  afford  us  adequate  light  and  heat,  is  very  possibly  far  more 
distant  than,  above  implied  ;  yet  such  a  period  must  some 
time  be  reached,  and  this  is  all  which  it  here  concerns  us 
to  observe. 

Thus  while  the  Solar  System,  if  evolved  from  diffused  mat- 
ter, has  illustrated  the  law  of  equilibration  in  the  establishment 
of  a  complete  moving  equilibrium;  and  while,  as  at  present  con- 
stituted, it  illustrates  the  law  of  equilibration  in  the  balancing 
of  all  its  movements ;  it  also  illustrates  this  law  in  the  pro- 
cesses which  astronomers  and  physicists  infer  are  still  going 
on.  That  motion  of  masses  produced  during  Evolution,  is 
being  slowly  re-diffused  in  molecular  motion  of  the  ethereal 
medium ;  both  through  the  progressive  integration  of  each 
mass,  and  the  resistance  to  its  motion  through  space.  Infinitely 
remote  as  may  be  the  state  when  all  the  motions  of  masses  shall 
be  transformed  into  molecular  motion,  and  all  the  molecular 
motion  equilibrated ;  yet  such  a  state  of  complete  integration 
and  complete  equilibration,  is  that  towards  which  the  changes 
now  going  on  throughout  the  Solar  System  inevitably  tend. 

§  172.  A  spherical  figure  is  the  one  which  can  alone  equi- 
librate the  forces  of  mutually- gravitating  atoms.  If  the  ag- 
gregate of  such  atoms  has  a  rotatory  motion,  the  form  of 
equilibrium  becomes  a  spheroid  of  greater  or  less  oblateness, 
according  to  the  rate  of  rotation  ;  and  it  has  been  ascertained 
that  the  Earth  is  an  oblate  spheroid,  diverging  just  as  much 
from  sphericity  as  is  requisite  to  counterbalance  the  centrifugal 
force  consequent  on  its  velocity  round  its  axis.  That  is  to 
say,  during  the  evolution  of  the  Earth,  there  has  been  reached 
a  complete  equilibrium  of  those  forces  which  affect  its  general 


496  •  EQUILIBRATION. 

outline.  The    only  other    process    of    equililration 

whicL.  the  Earth  as  a  whole  can  exhibit,  is  the  loss  of  its  axial 
motion;  and  that  any  such  loss  is  going  on,  we  have  no 
direct  evidence.  It  has  been  contended,  however,  by  Prof. 
Helmholtz,  that  inappreciable  as  may  be  its  effect  within 
known  periods  of  time,  the  friction  of  the  tidal  wave  must 
be  slowly  diminishing  the  Earth's  rotatory  motion,  and  must 
eventually  destroy  it.  Now  though  it  seems  an  oversight 
to  say  that  the  Earth's  rotation  can  thus  be  destroyed,  since 
the  extreme  effect,  to  be  reached  only  in  infinite  time  by  such 
a  process,  would  be  an  extension  of  the  Earth's  day  to  the 
length  of  a  lunation;  yet  it  seems  clear  that  this  friction 
of  the  tidal  wave  is  a  real  cause  of  decreasing  rotation.  Slow 
as  its  action  is,  we  must  recognize  it  as  exemplifying,  under 
another  form,  the  universal  progress  towards  eqtdlibrium. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out,  in  detail,  how  those  movements 
which  the  Sun's  rajs  generate  in  the  air  and  water  on  the 
Earth's  surface,  and  through  them  in  the  Earth's  solid  sub- 
stance,* one  and  all  teach  the  same  general  truth.  Evidently 
the  winds  and  waves  and  streams,  as  well  as  the  denudations  ard 
depositions  they  effect,  perpetually  illustrate  on  a  grand  scale, 
and  in  endless  modes,  that  gradual  dissipation  of  motions 
described  in  the  first  section ;  and  the  consequent  tendency 
towards  a  balanced  distribution  of  forces.  Each  of  these 
sensible  motions,  produced  directly  or  indirectly  by  integra- 
tion of  those  insensible  motions  communicated  from  the  Sun, 
becomes,  as  we  have  seen,  divided  and  subdivided  into 
motions  less  and  less  sensible ;  until  it  is  finally  reduced  to 
insensible  motions,  and  radiated  from  the  Earth  in  the  shape 
of  thermal  undulations.  In  their  totality,  these  com- 

*  IJntll  I  recently  consulted  his  "Outlines  of  Astronomy"  on  another  ques- 
tion, I  was  not  aware  that  so  far  back  as  1833,  Sir  John  Ilcrschcl  had  enunci- 
ated the  doctrine  that  "  the  sun's  rays  are  the  ultimate  source  of  almost  every 
motion  which  takes  place  on  the  surface  of  the  earth."  lie  expressly  includes 
all  geologic,  meteorologic,  and  vital  actions;  as  also  those  which  we  produce  by 
the  combustion  of  coal.  The  late  George  Stephenson  appears  to  have  beca 
wrouglj  credited  with  this  last  idea 


EQUILIBRATION.  497 

plex  movements  of  aerial,  liquid,  and  solid  matter  on  tHe 
Earth's  orust,  constitute  a  dependent  moving  equilibrium.  As 
we  before  saw,  there  is  traceable  throughout  them  an  in- 
volved combination  of  rhythms.  The  unceasing  circula- 
tion of  water  from  the  ocean  to  the  land,  and  from  the  land 
back  to  the  ocean,  is  a  type  of  these  various  compensating 
actions  ;  which,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  irregularities  produced 
by  their  mutual  interferences,  maintain  an  average.  And  in 
this,  as  in  other  equilibrations  of  the  third  order,  we  see  that 
ihe  power  from  moment  to  moment  in  course  of  dissipation, 
is  from  moment  to  moment  renewed  from  without :  the  rises 
and  falls  in  the  supply,  being  balanced  by  rises  and  falls  in  the 
expenditure  ;  as  witness  the  correspondence  between  the  mag- 
netic variations  and  the  cycle  of  the  solar  spots.  But 
the  fact  it  chiefly  concerns  us  to  observe,  is,  that  this  process 
must  go  on  bringing  things  ever  nearer  to  complete  rest. 
These  mechanical  movements,  meteorologic  and  geologic, 
which  are  continually  being  equilibrated,  both  temporarily 
by  counter-movements  and  permanently  by  the  dissipation  of 
such  movements  and  counter-movements,  will  slowly  diminish 
as  the  quantity  of  force  received  from  the  Sun  diminishes. 
As  the  insensible  motions  propagated  to  us  from  the  centre 
of  our  system  become  feebler,  the  sensible  motions  here  pro- 
duced by  them  must  decrease ;  and  at  that  remote  period 
when  the  solar  heat  has  ceased  to  be  appreciable,  there  will 
no  longer  be  any  appreciable  re- distributions  of  matter  on  the 
surface  of  our  planet. 

Thus  from  the  highest  point  of  view,  all  terrestrial  changes 
are  incidents  in  the  course  of  cosmical  equilibration.  It  was 
before  pointed  out,  (§  69)  that  of  the  incessant  alterations 
ivhich  the  Earth's  crust  and  atmosphere  undergo,  those  which 
are  not  due  to  the  still-progressing  motion  of  the  Earth's  sub- 
otance  towards  its  centre  of  gravity,  are  due  to  the  still-pro- 
gressing motion  of  the  Sun's  substance  towards  its  centre  of 
gravity.  Here  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that  this  continuance  of 
integration  in  the  Earth  and  in  the  Sun,  is  a  continuance  oi 


49S  EQUILIBRATION. 

that  transformation  of  sensible  motion  into  insensible  motion 
whicb  we  have  seen  ends  in  equilibration  ;  and  that  the  ar- 
rival in  each  case  at  the  extreme  of  integration,  is  the  arrival 
at  a  state  in  which  no  more  sensible  motion  remains  to  be 
transformed  into  insensible  motion — a  state  in  which  the 
forces  producing  integration  and  the  forces  opposing  integra- 
tion, have  become  equal. 

§  173.  Every  living  body  exhibits,  in  a  four-fold  form, 
the  process  we  are  tracing  out — exhibits  it  from  moment  to 
moment  in  the  balancing  of  mechanical  forces  ;  from  hour  to 
hour  in  the  balancing  of  functions  ;  from  year  to  year  in  the 
changes  of  state  that  compensate  changes  of  condition  ;  and 
finally  in  the  complete  arrest  of  vital  movements  at  death. 
Let  us  consider  the  facts  under  these  heads. 

The  sensible  motion  constituting  each  visible  action  of  an 
organism,  is  soon  brought  to  a  close  by  some  adverse  force 
within  or  without  the  organism.  When  the  arm  is  raised,  the 
motion  given  to  it  is  antagonized  partly  by  gravity  and  partly 
by  the  internal  resistances  consequent  on  structure ;  and  its 
motion,  thus  suffering  continual  deduction,  ends  when  the  arm 
has  reached  a  position  at  which  the  forces  are  equilibrated.  The 
limits  of  each  systole  and  diastole  of  the  heart,  severally  show 
us  a  momentary  equilibrium  between  muscular  strains  that  pro- 
duce opposite  movements ;  and  each  gush  of  blood  requires 
to  be  iinmediafely  followed  by  another,  because  the  rapid 
dissipation  of  its  momentum  would  otherwise  soon  bring 
the  mass  of  circulating  fluid  to  a  stand.  As  much  in  the 
actions  and  re-actions  going  on  among  the  internal  organs, 
as  in  the  mechanical  balancing  of  the  whole  body,  there  is  at 
every  instant  a  progressive  equilibration  of  the  -motions  at 
every  instant  produced.  Viewed  in  their  aggregate, 

and  as  forming  a  series,  the  organic  functions  constitute 
a  dependent  moving  equilibrium — a  moving  equilibrium, 
of  which  the  motive  power  is  ever  being  dissipated  through 
the   special    equilibrations    just    exemplified,   and    is    evex 


EQUILIBRATION.  499 

being  renewed  by  the  taking  in  of  additional  motive  power. 
Food  is  a  store  of  force  which  continually  adds  to  the  momen- 
tum of  the  vital  actions,  as  much  as  is  continually  deducted 
from  them  by  the  forces  overcome.  All  the  functional  move- 
ments thus  maintained,  are,  as  we  have  seen,  rhythmical  (§  85) ; 
by  their  union  compound  rhythms  of  various  lengths  and 
complexities  are  produced  ;  and  in  these  simple  and  com- 
pound rhythms,  the  process  of  equilibration,  besides  being 
exemphfied  at  each  extreme  of  every  rhythm,  is  seen  in  the 
habitual  preservation  of  a  constant  mean,  and  in  the  re- estab- 
lishment of  that  mean  when  accidental  causes  have  produced 
divergence  from  it.  When,  for  instance,  there  is  a  great  ex- 
penditure of  motion  through  muscular  activity,  there  arises  a 
re-active  demand  on  those  stores  of  latent  motion  which  are  laid 
up  in  the  form  of  consumable  matter  throughout  the  tissues : 
increased  respiration  and  increased  rapidity  of  circulation, 
are  instrumental  to  an  extra  genesis  of  force,  that  counter- 
balances the  extra  dissipation  of  force.  This  unusual  trans- 
formation of  molecular  motion  into  sensible  motion,  is  presently 
followed  by  an  unusual  absorption  of  food — the  source  of  mole- 
cular motion  ;  and  in  proportion  as  there  has  been  a  prolonged 
draft  upon  the  spare  capital  of  the  system,  is  there  a  tendency 
to  a  prolonged  rest,  during  which  that  spare  capital  is  replaced. 
If  the  deviation  from  the  ordinary  course  of  the  functions  has 
been  so  great  as  to  derange  them,  as  when  violent  exertion 
produces  loss  of  appetite  and  loss  of  sleep,  an  equilibration  is 
still  eventually  effected.  Providing  the  disturbance  is  not 
such  as  to  overturn  the  balance  of  the  functions,  and  destroy 
life  (in  which  case  a  complete  equilibration  is  suddenly  effected), 
the  ordinary  balance  is  by  and  by  re-established :  the  return- 
ing appetite  is  keen  in  proportion  as  the  waste  has  been  large ; 
while  sleep,  sound  and  prolonged,  makes  up  for  previous  wake- 
fulness. Not  even  in  those  extreme  cases  where  some  excess 
has  wrought  a  derangement  that  is  never  wholly  rectified,  is 
there  an  exception  to  the  general  law  ;  for  in  such  cases  the 
cycle  of  the  functions  is,  after  a  time,  equilibrated  about  a  new 


4^ 

500  EQUILIBRATION 

mean  state,  whicli  thenceforth  becomes  the  normal  state  of 
the  individual.  Thus,  among  the  involved  rhythmical  changes 
constituting  organic  life,  any  disturbing  force  that  works  an 
excess  of  change  in  some  direction,  is  gradually  diminished 
and  finally  neutralized  by  antagonistic  forces  ;  which  there- 
upon work  a  compensating  change  in  the  opposite  direction, 
and  so,  after  more  or  less  of  oscillation,  restore  the  medium 
condition.  And  this  process  it  is,  which  constitutes  what 
physicians  call  the  vis  medicatrix  tiaturce.  The  third 

form  of  equilibration  displayed  by  organic  bodies,  is  a  neces- 
sary sequence  of  that  just  illustrated.  "When  through  a 
change  of  habit  or  circumstance,  an  organism  is  permanently 
subject  to  some  new  influence,  or  difierent  amount  of  an  old 
influence,  there  arises,  after  more  or  less  disturbance  of  the 
organic  rhythms,  a  balancing  of  them  around  the  new  average 
condition  produced  by  this  additional  influence.  As  temporary 
divergences  of  the  organic  rhythms  are  counteracted  by  tem- 
porary divergences  of  a  reverse  kind ;  so  there  is  an  equili- 
bration of  their  permanent  divergences  by  the  genesis  of  oppos- 
ing divergences  that  are  equally  permanent.  If  the  quantity 
of  motion  to  be  habitually  generated  by  a  muscle,  becomes 
greater  than  before,  its  nutrition  becomes  greater  than  before. 
If  the  expenditure  of  the  muscle  bears  to  its  nutrition,  a 
greater  ratio  than  expenditure  bears  to  nutrition  in  other  parts 
of  the  system  ;  the  excess  of  nutrition  becomes  such  that  the 
muscle  grows.  And  the  cessation  of  its  growth  is  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  balance  between  the  daily  waste  and  the  daily 
repair — the  daily  expenditure  of  force,  and  the  amount  of 
latent  force  daily  added.  The  like  must  manifestly  be  the 
case  with  all  organic  modifications  consequent  on  change  of 
climate  or  food.  This  is  a  conclusion  which  we  may  safely 
draw  without  knowing  the  special  re- arrangements  that  ef- 
fect the  equilibration.  If  we  see  that  a  difierent  mode  of 
life  is  followed,  after  a  period  of  functional  derangement, 
by  some  altered  condition  of  the  system — if  we  see  that  this 
altered  ccmdition,  becoming  by  and  by  established,  continues 


EQUILIBRATION.  601 

without  further  change  ;  we  have  no  alternative  but  to  say, 
that  the'  new  forces  brought  to  bear  on  the  system,  have 
been  compensated  by  the  opposing  forces  they  have  evoked. 
And  this  is  the  interpretation  of  the  process  which  we  call 
adaptation.  Finally,    each   organism   illustrates   the 

law;  in  the  ensemble  of  its  life.  At  the  outset  It  daily  absorbs 
under  the  form  of  food,  an  amount  of  force  greater  than  it 
daily  expends ;  and  the  surplus  is  daily  equilibrated  by 
growth.  As  maturity  is  approached,  this  surplus  diminishes  ; 
and  in  the  perfect  organism,  the  day's  absorption  of  potential 
motion  balances  the  day's  expenditure  of  actual  motion.  That 
is  to  say,  during  adult  life,  there  is  continuously  exhibited  an 
equilibration  of  the  third  order.  Eventually,  the  daily  loss, 
beginning  to  out-balance  the  daily  gain,  there  results  a  dimin- 
ishing amount  of  functional  action ;  the  organic  rhythms 
extend  less  and  less  widely  on  each  side  of  the  medium 
state ;  and  there  finally  results  that  complete  equilibration 
which  we  call  death. 

The  ultimate  structural  state  accompanying  that  ultimate 
functional  state  towards  which  an  organism  tends,  both  indivi- 
dually and  as  a  species,  may  be  deduced  from  one  of  the  pro- 
positions set  down  in  the  opening  section  of  this  chapter. 
We  saw  that  the  limit  of  heterogeneity  is  arrived  at  when- 
ever the  equilibration  of  any  aggregate  becomes  complete — 
that  the  re- distribution  of  matter  can  continue  so  long  only  as 
there  continues  any  motion  unbalanced.  "Whence  we  found  it 
to  follow  that  the  final  structural  arrangements,  must  be  such 
as  will  meet  all  the  forces  acting  on  the  aggregate,  by  equiva- 
lent antagonist  forces.  ^Yhat  is  the  implication  in  the  case 
of  organic  aggregates ;  the  equilibrium  of  which  js  a  moving 
one  ?  "VYe  have  seen  that  the  maintenance  of  such  a  moving 
equilibrium,  requires  the  habitual  genesis  of  internal  forces 
corresponding  in  number,  directions,  and  amounts  to  the  ex- 
ternal incident  forces — as  many  inner  functions,  single  or 
combined,  as  there  are  single  or  combined  outer  actions  to  ba 
Diet.     But  functions  are  the  correlatives  of  organs  ;  amounts 


602  EQUILIBRATION. 

of  functions  are,  other  things  equal,  tlie  correlatives  of  sizes 
of  organs  ;  and  combinations  of  functions  the  correlatives  of 
connections  of  organs.  Hence  the  structural  complexity 
accompanying  functional  equilibration,  is  definable  as  one  in 
, which  there  are  as  many  specialized  parts  as  are  capable, 
separately  and  jointly,  of  counteracting  the  separate  and 
joint  forces  amid  which  the  organism  exists.  And  this  is  the 
limit  of  organic  heterogeneity;  to  which  man  has  approached 
more  nearly  than  any  other  creature. 

Groups  of  organisms  display  this  universal  tendency  to- 
wards a  balance  very  obviously.  In  §  85,  every  species  of 
plant  and  animal  was  shown  to  be  perpetually  undergoing  a 
rhythmical  variation  in  number — ^now  from  abundance  of 
food  and  absence  of  enemies  rising  above  its  average ;  and 
then  by  a  consequent  scarcity  of  food  and  abundance  of  ene- 
mies being  depressed  below  its  average.  And  here  we  have 
to  observe  that  there  is  thus  maintained  an  equilibrium  be- 
tween the  sum  of  those  forces  which  result  in  the  increase  of 
each  race,  and  the  sum  of  those  forces  which  result  in  its  dcr 
crease.  Either  limit  of  variation  is  a  point  at  which  the  one 
set  of  forces,  before  in  excess  of  the  other,  is  counterbalanced 
by  it.  And  amid  these  oscillations  produced  by  their  con- 
flict, lies  that  average  number  of  the  species  at  which  its 
expansive  tendency  is  in  equilibrium  with  surrounding 
repressive  tendencies.  Nor  can  it  be  questioned  that  this 
balancing  of  the  preservative  and  destructive  forces  which 
we  see  going  on  in  every  race,  must  necessarily  go  on.  Since 
increase  of  number  cannot  but  continue  until  increase  of 
mortality  stops  it ;  and  decrease  of  number  cannot  but  con- 
tinue until  it  is  either  arrested  by  fertility  or  extinguishes  the 
race  entirely. 

§  174.  The  equilibrations  of  those  nervous  actions  which 
constitute  what  we  know  as  mental  life,  may  be  classified  in 
like   manner  with  those  which   constitute    what    wo  dis- 


EQUILIBRATION.  503 

tinguisli  as  bodily  life.  AVe  may  deal  with  them  in  the 
same  order. 

Each  pulse  of  nervous  force  from  moment  to  moment  gener- 
ated, (and  it  was  shown  in  §  86  that  nervous  currents  are  not 
continuous  but  rhythmical)  is  met  by  counteracting  forces;  in, 
overcoming  which  it  is  dispersed  and  equilibrated.  When 
tracing  out  the  correlation  and  equivalence  of  forces,  we  saw 
that  each  sensation  and  emotion,  or  rather  such  part  of  it  as 
remains  after  the  excitation  of  associated  ideas  and  feelings, 
is  expended  in  working  bodily  changes — contractions  of  the 
involuntary  muscles,  the  voluntary  muscles,  or  both ;  as  also 
in  a  certain  stimulation  of  secreting  organs.  That  the  move- 
ments thus  initiated  are  ever  being  brought  to  a  close  by  the 
opposing  forces  they  evoke,  was  pointed  out  above ;  and  here  it 
is  to  be  observed  that  the  like  holds  with  the  nervous  changes 
thus  initiated.  Various  facts  prove  that  the  arousing  of  a 
thought  or  feeling,  always  involves  the  overcoming  of  a  cer- 
tain resistance :  instance  the  fact  that  where  the  association 
of  mental  states  has  not  been  frequent,  a  sensible  effort  is 
needed  to  call  up  the  one  after  the  other  ;  instance  the  fact 
that  during  nervous  prostration  there  is  a  comparative  in- 
ability to  think — the  ideas  will  not  follow  one  another  with  tlie 
habitual  rapidity ;  instance  the  converse  fact  that  at  times  of 
unusual  energy,  natural  or  artificial,  the  friction  of  thought 
becomes  relatively  small,  and  more  numerous,  more  remote, 
or  more  difficult  connections  of  ideas  are  formed.  That  is  to 
say,  the  wave  of  nervous  energy  each  instant  generated,  pro- 
pagates itself  throughout  body  and  brain,  along  those  chan- 
nels which  the  conditions  at  the  instant  render  lines  of  least 
resistance ;  and  spreading  widely  in  proportion  to  its  amount, 
ends  only  when  it  is  equilibrated  by  the  resistances  it  every 
where  meets.  If  we  contemplate  mental  actions  aa 

extending  over  hours  and  days,  we  discover  equilibrations 
analogous  to  those  hourly  and  daily  established  among  the 
bodily  functions.     In  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  there  are 


504  EQUILIBRATION. 

rhythms  which  exhibit  a  balancing  of  opposing  forces  at  each 
extreme,  and  the  maintenance  of  a  certain  general  balance. 
This  is  seen  in  the  daily  alternation  of  mental  activity  and 
mental  rest — the  forces  expended  during  the  one  being  compen- 
^  sated  by  the  forces  acquired  during  the  other.  It  is  also  seen  in 
the  recurring  rise  and  fall  of  each  desire:  each  desire  reaching  a 
certain  intensity,  is  equilibrated  either  by  expenditure  of  the 
force  it  embodies,  in  the  desired  actions,  or,  less  completely,  in 
the  imagination  of  such  actions  :  the  process  ending  in  that  sa- 
tiety, or  that  comparative  quiescence,  forming  the  opposite  limit 
of  the  rhythm.  And  it  is  further  manifest  under  a  two-fold 
form,  on  occasions  of  intense  joy  or  grief :  each  paroxysm  of 
passion,  expressing  itself  in  vehement  bodily  actions,  presently 
reaches  an  extreme  whence  the  counteracting  forces  produce 
a  return  to  a  condition  of  moderate  excitement ;  and  the  suc- 
cessive paroxysms  finally  diminishing  in  intensity,  end  in  a 
mental  equilibrium  either  like  that  before  existing,  or  par 
tially  differing  from   it  iti   its    medium  state.  But 

the  species  of  mental  equilibration  to  be  more  especially  noted, 
is  that  shown  in  the  establishment  of  a  correspondence  be- 
tween relations  among  our  states  of  consciousness  and  relations 
in  the  external  world.  Each  outer  connection  of  phenomena 
which  we  are  capable  of  perceiving,  generates,  through  ac- 
cumulated experiences,  an  inner  connection  of  mental  states ; 
and  the  result  towards  which  this  process  tends,  is  the  forma- 
tion of  a  mental  connection  having  a  relative  strength  that 
answers  to  the  relative  constancy  of  the  physical  connection 
represented.  In  conformity  with  the  general  law  that 
motion  pursues  the  line  of  least  resistance,  and  that,  other 
things  equal,  a  line  once  taken  by  motion  is  made  a  line  that 
will  be  more  readily  pursued  by  future  motion  ;  we  have  seen 
that  the  ease  with  which  nervous  impressions  follow  one  an- 
other, is,  other  things  equal,  great  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber of  times  they  have  been  repeated  together  in  experience. 
Jlence,  corresponding  to  such  an  invariable  relation  as  that  be- 
tween the  resistance  of  an  object  and  some  extension  possessed 


EQUILIBRATION.  505 

by  it,  there  arises  an  indissoluble  connection  in  consciousness  ; 
and  this  connection,  being  as  absolute  internally  as  the  answer- 
ing one  is  externally,  undergoes  no  further  change — the  inner 
relation  is  in  perfect  equilibrium  with  the  outer  relation. 
Conversely,  it  hence  happens  that  to  such  uncertain  relations 
of  phenomena  as  that  between  clouds  and  rain,  there  arise 
relations  of  ideas  of  a  lilie  uncertainty ;  and  if,  under  given 
aspects  of  the  sky,  the  tendencies  to  infer  fair  or  foul  wea- 
ther, correspond  to  the  frequencies  with  which  fair  or  foui 
weather  follow  such  aspects,  the  accumulation  of  experiences 
has  balanced  the  mental  sequences  and  the  physical  sequences. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  between  these  extremes  there 
are  countless  orders  of  external  connections  having  different 
degrees  of  constancy,  and  that  during  the  evolution  of  in- 
tellio:ence  there  arise  answerinof  internal  associations  having^ 
different  degrees  of  cohesion ;  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a 
progress  towards  equilibrium  between  the  relations  of  thought 
and  the  relations  of  things.  This  equilibration  can  end 
only  when  each  relation  of  things  has  generated  in  us  a  rela- 
tion of  thought,  such  that  on  the  occurrence  of  the  conditions, 
the  relation  in  thought  arises  as  certainly  as  the  relation  in 
things.  Supposing  this  state  to  b6  reached  (which  however  it 
can  be  only  in  infinite  time)  experience  will  cease  to  produce 
any  further  mental  evolution — there  will  have  been  reached  a 
perfect  correspondence  between  ideas  and  facts ;  and  the  in- 
tellectual adaptation  of  man  to  his  circumstances  will  be 
complete.  The  like  general  truths  are  exhibited  in 

the  process  of  moral  adaptation ;  which  is  a  continual  approach 
to  equilibrium  between  the  emotions  and  the  kinds  of  con- 
duct necessitated  by  surrounding  conditions.  The  connections 
of  feelings  and  actions,  are  determined  in  the  same  way 
as  the  connections  of  ideas  :  just  as  repeating  the  association 
of  two  ideas,  facilitates  the  excitement  of  the  one  by  the 
other ;  so  does  each  discharge  of  feeling  into  action,  render 
the  subsequent  discharge  of  such  feeling  into  such  action 
•nore  easy.  Hence  it  happens  that  if  an  individual  is  placed 
23 


506  EQUILIBRATION. 

permanently  in  conditions  which,  demand  more  action  of  a 
special  kind  than  has  before  been  requisite,  or  than  is  natural 
to  him — if  the  pressure  of  the  painful  feelings  which  these 
conditions  entail  when  disregarded,  impels  him  to  perforin 
this  action  to  a  greater  extent — if  by  every  more  frequent  or 
more  lengthened  performance  of  it  under  such  pressure,  the 
resistance  is  somewhat  diminished ;  then,  clearly,  there 
is  an  advance  towards  a  balance  between  the  demand  for 
this  kind  of  action  and  the  supply  of  it.  Either  in  him- 
self, or  in  his  descendants  continuing  to  live  under  these 
conditions,  enforced  repetition  must  eventually  bring  about 
a  state  in  which  this  mode  of  directing  the  energies  will  bo 
no  more  repugnant  than  the  various  other  modes  previously 
natural  to  the  race.  Hence  the  limit  towards  which  emotional 
modification  perpetually  tends,  and  to  which  it  must  approach 
indefinitely  near  (though  it  can  absolutely  reach  it  only  in 
infinite  time)  is  a  combination  of  desires  that  correspond  to 
all  the  different  orders  of  activity  which  the  circumstances  of 
life  call  for — desires  severally  proportionate  dn  strength  to 
the  needs  for  these  orders  of  activity ;  and  severally  satisfied 
by  these  orders  of  activity.  In  what  we  distinguish  as 
iicquired  habits,  and  in  the  moral  differences  of  races  and 
nations  produced  by  habits  that  are  maintained  through  suc- 
cessive generations,  we  have  countless  illustrations  of  this 
progressive  adaptation ;  which  can  cease  only  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  complete  equilibrium  between  constitution  and 
conditions. 

Possibly  3ome  will  fail  to  see  how  the  equilibrations  de- 
bcribed  in  this  section,  can  be  classed  with  those  preceding 
them ;  and  will  be  inclined  to  say  that  what  are  here  set 
down  as  facts,  are  but  analogies.  N'everthelcss  such  equi- 
librations are  as  truly  physical  as  the  rest.  To  show  this 
fully,  would  require  a  more  detailed  analysis  than  can  now  be 
entered  on.  For  the  present  it  must  suffice  to  point  out,  as 
before  (§  71),  that  what  we  know  subjectively  as  states  of 


EQUILIBRATION.  507 

ooneciousness,  are,  objectively,  modes  of  force  ;  that  so  much 
t'eelingistlie  correlate  of  so  much  motion;  that  the  performancfi 
of  any  bodily  action  is  the  transformation  of  a  certain  amount 
of  feeling  into  its  equivalent  amount  of  motion;  that  this 
bodily  action  is  met  by  forces  which  it  is  expended  in  over- 
coming ;  and  that  the  necessity  for  the  frequent  repetition  of 
this  action,  implies  the  frequent  recurrence  of  forces  to  oe  so 
overcome.  Hence  the  existence  in  any  individual  of  an 
emotional  stimulus  that  is  in  equilibrium  with  certain  ex- 
ternal requirements,  is  literally  the  habitual  production  of  a 
certain  specialized  portion  of  nervous  energy,  equivalent  in 
amount  to  a  certain  order  of  external  resistances  that  are 
habitually  met.  And  thus  the  ultimate  state,  forming  the 
limit  towards  which  Evolution  carries  us,  is  one  in  which  the 
kinds  and  quantities  of  mental  energy  daily  generated  and 
transformed  into  motions,  are  equivalent  to,  or  in  equilibrium 
with,  the  various  orders  and  degrees  of  surrounding  forces 
which  antagonize  such  motions. 

§  175.  Each  society  taken  as  a  whole,  displays  the  process 
of  equilibration  in  the  continuous  adjustment  of  its  population 
to  its  means  of  subsistence.  A  tribe  of  men  living  on  wild 
animals  and  fruits,  is  manifestly,  like  every  tribe  of  inferior 
creatures,  always  oscillating  about  that  average  number  which 
the  locality  can  support.  Though  by  artificial  production,  ancL 
by  successive  improvements  in  artificial  production,  a  superior 
race  continually  alters  the  limit  which  external  conditions 
put  to  population  ;  yet  there  is  ever  a  checking  of  population 
at  the  temporary  limit  reached.  It  is  true  that  where  the 
limit  is  being  so  rapidly  changed  as  among  ourselves,  there 
is  no  actual  stoppage  :  there  is  only  a  rhythmical  variation 
in  the  rate  of  increase.  But  in  noting  the  causes  of  this 
rhythmical  variation — in  watching  how,  during  periods  0£ 
abundance,  the  proportion  of  marriages  increases,  and  how 
it  decreases  during  periods  of  scarcity ;  it  will  be  seen  that  tLo 


508  EQUILIBRATION. 

expansive  force  produces  unusual  advance  whenever  the  tt^ 
pressive  force  diminishes,  and  vice  versa ;  and  thus  there  ia  i«« 
near  a  balancing  of  the  two  as  the  changing  conditions  permit. 
The  internal  actions  constituting  social  functions,  exemplify 
the  general  principle  no  less  clearly.  Supply  and  demand 
are  continually  being  adjusted  throughout  all  industrial  pro- 
cesses ;  and  this  equilibration  is  interpretable  in  the  same  way 
as  preceding  ones.  The  production  and  distribution  of  a 
commodity,  is  the  expression  of  a  certain  aggregate  of  forces 
causing  special  kinds  and  amounts  of  motion.  The  price  of 
this  commodity,  is  the  measure  of  a  certain  other  aggregate 
of  forces  expended  by  the  labourer  who  purchases  it,  in  other 
kinds  and  amounts  of  motion.  And  the  variations  of  price 
represent  a  rhythmical  balancing  of  these  forces.  Every  rise 
or  fall  in  the  rate  of  interest,  or  change  in  the  value  of  a 
particular  security,  implies  a  conflict  of  forces  in  which  some, 
becoming  temporarily  predominant,  cause  a  movement  that 
is  presently  arrested  or  equilibrated  by  the  increase  of  oppos- 
ing forces  ;  and  amid  these  daily  and  hourly  oscillations,  lies  a 
more  slowly- varying  medium,  into  which  the  value  ever  tends 
to  settle  ;  and  would  settle  but  for  the  constant  addition  of  new 
influences.  As  in  the  individual  organism  so  in  the 

social  organism,  functional  equilibrations  generate  structural 
equilibrations.  When  on  the  workers  in  any  trade  there 
comes  an  increased  demand,  and  when  in  return  for  the  in- 
creased supply,  there  is  given  to  them  an  amount  of  other  com- 
modities larger  than  was  before  habitual — when,  consequently, 
the  resistances  overcome  by  them  in  sustaining  life  are  less 
than  the  resistances  overcome  by  other  workers ;  there 
results  a  flow  of  other  workers  into  this  trade.  Tliis 
flow  continues  untij  the  extra  demand  is  met,  and  the 
wages  so  far  fall  again,  that  the  total  resistance  over 
come  in  obtaining  a  given  amount  of  produce,  is  as  great  in 
this  newly-adopted  occupation  as  in  the  occupations  whence 
it  drew  recruits.  The  occurrence  ol  motion  along  linos  of 
least  resistance,  was  before  shown  to  necessitate  the  growth, 


EQUILIBRATION  509 

of  population  in  tliose  places  where  tlie  labour  required  for 
self-maintenance  is  the  smallest ;    and  here  we  further  see 
that  those  engaged  in  any  such  advantageous  locality,  or 
advantageous  business,  must   multiply  tiU   there  arises   an 
approximate  balance  between  this  locality   or  business  and 
others    accessible  to   the   same    citizens.      In   determining 
the  career  of  every  youth,  we  see  an  estimation  by  parents  of 
the  respective  advantages  offered  by  all  that  are  available, 
and  a  choice  of  the  one  which  promises  best ;    and  through 
the  consequent  influx  into  trades  that  are  at  the  time  most 
profitable,  and  the  withholding  of  recruits  from  over-stocked 
trades,   there  is  insured  a   general   equipoise   between  the 
power  of  each  social  organ  and  the  function  it  has  to  perform. 
The  various  industrial   actions  and  re-actions  thus  con- 
tinually alternating,  constitute  a  dependent  moving  equiK- 
brium  like  that  which  is  maintained  among  the  functions 
of  an  individual  organism.      And  this  dependent   moving 
equilibrium  parallels  those  already  contemplated,  in  its  tend- 
ency  to  become  more   complete.     During,  early    stages   of 
social  evolution,  while  yet  the  resources  of  the  locality  inha- 
bited are  unexplored,  and  the  arts  of  production  undeveloped, 
there  is  never  anything  more  than  a  temporary  and  partial 
balancing  of  such  actions,  under  the  form  of  acceleration  or 
retardation  of  growth.     But  when  a  society  approaches  the 
maturity  of  that  type  on  which  it  is  organized,  the  vari- 
ous industrial   activities   settle  down  into   a  comparatively 
constant  state.     Moreover,  it  is  observable  that  advance  in 
organization,  as  well  as  advance  in  growth,  is  conducive  to  a 
better  equilibrium  of  industrial  functions.     "While  the  diffu- 
sion of  mercantile  information  is  slow,  and  the  means  of 
transport  deficient,  the  adjustment  of  supply  to  demand  is 
extremely  imperfect :    great  over-production  of  each  com- 
modity followed   by  great  under-production,    constitute    a 
rhythm  having  extremes  that  depart  very  widely  from  the 
nean  state  in  which  demand  and  supply  are  equilibrated. 
But  when  good  roads  are  made,  and  there  is  a  rapid  diffusion  of 


MO  EQUILIBRATION. 

printed  or  written  intelligence,  and  still  more  when  railways 
and  telegraphs  come  into  existence  —  when  the  periodical 
fairs  of  early  days  lapse  into  weekly  markets,  and  these  into 
daily  markets ;  there  is  gradually  produced  a  better  balance 
of  production  and  consumption.  Extra  demand  is  much 
more  quickly  followed  by  augmented  supply  ;  and  the  rapid 
oscillations  of  price  within  narrow  limits  on  either  side  of  a 
comparatively  uniform  mean,  indicate  a  near  approach  to 
equilibrium.  Evidently  this  industrial  progress  has 

for  its  limit,  that  which  Mr.  Mill  has  called  "  the  sta- 
tionary state."  When  population  shall  have  become  dense 
over  all  habitable  parts  of  the  globe ;  when  the  resources  of 
every  region  have  been  fully  explored ;  and  when  the  product- 
ive arts  admit  of  no  further  improvements ;  there  must  result 
an  almost  complete  balance,  both  between  the  fertility  and 
mortality  of  each  society,  and  between  its  producing  and 
consuming  activities.  Each  society  will  exhibit  only  minor 
deviations  from  its  average  number,  and  the  rhythm  of  its 
industrial  functions  will  go  on  from  day  to  day  and  year 
to  year  with  comparatively  insignificant  perturbations.  This 
limit,  however,  though  we  are  inevitably  advancing  towards 
it,  is  indefinitely  remote ;  and  can  never  indeed  be  absolutely 
reached.  The  peopling  of  the  Earth  up  to  the  point  sup- 
posed, cannot  take  place  by  simple  spreading.  In  the  future, 
as  in  the  past,  the  process  will  be  carried  on  rhythmically, 
by  waves  of  emigration  from  new  and  higher  centres  of 
civilization  successively  arising ;  and  by  the  supplanting  of 
inferior  races  by  the  superior  races  they  beget;  and  the 
process  so  carried  on  must  be  extremely  slow.  Nor  does 
it  seem  to  me  that  such  an  equilibration  will,  as  Mr.  Mill 
suggests,  leave  scope  for  further  mental  culture  and  moral 
progress ;  but  rather  that  the  approximation  to  it  must 
be  simultaneous  with  the  approximation  to  complete  equi- 
librium between  man's  nature  and  the  conditions  of  hia 
existence. 

One  other  kind  of  social  equilibration  has  still  to  be  con- 


EQUILIBRATION.  511 

fiidered :— tliat  which  results  in  the  establishment  of  govern- 
mental  institutions,  and  which  becomes  complete  as  these 
institutions  fall  into  harmony  with  the  desires  of  the  people. 
There  is  a  demand  and  supply  in  political  affairs  as  in  indus- 
trial affairs ;  and  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  the  antag- 
onist forces  produce  a  rhythm  which,  at  first  extreme  in  its 
oscillations,  slowly  settles  down  into  a  moving  equilibrium  of 
comparative  regularity.  Those  aggressive  impulses  inherited 
from  the  pre-social  state — those  tendencies  to  seek  self-satis- 
faction regardless  of  injury  to  other  beings,  which  are  essen- 
tial to  a  predatory  life,  constitute  an  anti-social  force,  tending 
ever  to  cause  conflict  and  eventual  separation  of  citizens. 
Contrariwise,  those  desires  whose  ends  can  be  achieved 
only  by  union,  as  well  as  those  sentiments  which  find  satisfac- 
tion through  intercourse  with  fellow-men,  and  those  result- 
ing in  what  we  call  loyalty,  are  forces  tending  to  keep  the 
units  of  a  society  together.  On  the  one  hand,  there  is  in 
each  citizen,  more  or  less  of  resistance  against  all  restraints 
imposed  on  his  actions  by  other  citizens :  a  resistance  which, 
tending  continually  to  widen  each  individual's  sphere  of 
action,  and  reciprocally  to  limit  the  spheres  of  action 
of  other  individuals,  constitutes  a  repulsive  force  mutually 
exercised  by  the  members  of  a  social  aggregate.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  general  sympathy  of  man  for  man,  and 
the  more  special  sympathy  of  each  variety  of  man  for  others 
of  the  same  variety,  together  with  sundry  allied  feelings 
which  the  social  state  'gratifies,  act  as  an  attractive  force, 
tending  ever  to  keep  united  those  who  have  a  common  ances- 
try. And  since  the  resistances  to  be  overcome  in  satisfying 
the  totality  of  their  desires  when  living  separately,  are  greater 
than  the  resistances  to  be  overcome  in  satisfying  the  totality 
of  their  desires  when  living  together,  there  is  a  residuary 
force  that  prevents  their  separation.  Like  all  other  opposing 
forces,  those  exerted  by  citizens  on  each  other,  are  ever 
producing  alternating  movements,  which,  at  first  extreme, 
undergo  a  gradual  diminution  on  the  way  to  ultimate  cquili- 


512  Eai^TLIRRATKW. 

briura.  In  small^  undeveloped  societies,  marked  rhythms 
result  from  these  conflicting  tendencies.  A  tribe  whose 
members  have  held  together  for  a  generation  or  two,  reaches 
a  size  at  which  it  will  not  hold  together  ;  and  on  the  occur- 
rence of  some  event  causing  unusual  antagonism  among  its 
members,  divides.  Each  primitive  nation,  depending  largely 
for  its  continued  union  on  the  character  of  its  chief,  exhibits 
wide  oscillations  between  an  extreme  in  which  the  subjects 
are  under  rigid  restraint,  and  an  extreme  in  which  the 
restraint  is  not  enough  to  prevent  disorder.  In  more 
advanced  nations  of  like  type,  we  always  find  violent  ac- 
tions and  reactions  of  the  same  essential  nature — "  despotism 
tempered  by  assassination,"  characterizing  a  political  state 
in  which  unbearable  repression  from  time  to  time  brings 
about  a  bursting  of  all  bonds.  In  this  familiar  fact,  that  a 
period  of  tyranny  is  followed  by  a  period  of  license  and 
vice  versdf  we  see  how  these  opposing  forces  are  ever  equili- 
brating each  other  ;  and  we  also  see,  in  the  tendency  of  such 
movements  and  counter- movements  to  become  more  moder- 
ate, how  the  equilibration  progresses  towards  completeness. 
The  conflicts  between  Conservatism  (which  stands  for  the 
restraints  of  society  over  the  individual)  and  Eeform  (which 
stands  for  the  liberty  of  the  individual  against  society),  fall 
within  slowly  approximating  limits  ;  so  that  the  temporary 
predominance  of  either,  produces  a  less  marked  deviation 
from  the  medium  state.  This  process,  now  so  far 

advanced  among  ourselves  that  the  oscillations  are  compara- 
tively unobtrusive,  must  go  on  till  the  balance  between  the 
antagonist  forces  approaches  indefinitely  near  perfection. 
For,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  adaptation  of  man's  nature 
to  the  conditions  of  his  existence,  cannot  cease  until  the  in- 
ternal forces  which  we  know  as  feelings  are  in  equilibrium 
with  the  external  forces  they  encounter.  And  the  establish- 
ment of  this  equilibrium,  is  the  arrival  at  a  state  of  human 
nature  and  social  organization,  such  that  the  individual  haa 
no  desires  but  those  which  may  be  satisfied  without  exceed- 


EQUILIBRATION.  513 

ing  his  proper  sphere  of  action,  while  society  maintains  no 
restraints  but  those  which  the  individual  yoluntarily  re- 
spects. The  progressive  extension  of  the  liberty  of  citizens, 
and  the  reciprocal  removal  of  political  restrictions,  are  the 
steps  by  which  we  advance  towards  this  state.  And  the  ulti- 
mate abolition  of  all  limits  to  the  freedom  of  each,  save  those 
imposed  by  the  like  freedom  of  all,  must  result  from  the 
complete  equilibration  between  man's  desires  and  the  conduct 
necessitated  by  surrounding  conditions. 

Of  course  in  this  case,  as  in  the  preceding  ones,  there  is 
thus  involved  a  limit  to  the  increase  of  heterogeneity.  A 
few  pages  back,  we  reached  the  conclusion  that  each  advance 
in  mental  evolution,  is  the  establishment  of  some  further 
internal  action,  corresponding  to  some  further  external 
action — some  additional  connection  of  ideas  or  feelings, 
answering  to  some  before  unknown  or  unantagonized  con- 
nection of  phenomena.  We  inferred  that  each  such  new 
function,  involving  some  new  modification  of  structure, 
implies  an  increase  of  heterogeneity  ;  and  that  thus,  in- 
crease of  heterogeneity  must  go  on,  while  there  remain  any 
outer  relations  affecting  the  organism  which  are  unbalanced 
by  inner  relations.  "WTience  we  saw  it  to  follow  that  in- 
crease of  heterogeneity  can  come  to  an  end  only  as  equilibra- 
tion is  completed.  Evidently  the  like  must  simultaneously 
take  place  with  society.  Each  increment  of  heterogeneity 
in  the  individual,  must  directly  or  indirectly  involve,  as 
cause  or  consequence,  some  increment  of  heterogeneity  in 
the  arrangements  of  the  aggregate  of  individuals.  And  the 
limit  to  social  complexity  can  be  arrived  at,  only  w4th  the 
establishment  of  the  equilibrium,  just  described,  between 
social  and  individual  forces. 

§  176.  Here  presents  itself  a  final  question,  which  has  pro- 
bably been  taking  a  more  or  less  distinct  shape  in  the  minds 
of  many,  while  reading  this  chapter.  "  If  Evolution  of  every 
kind,  is  an  increase  in  complexity  of  structure  and  function 


514  EQTJILIBBATION. 

tliafc  is  incidental  to  tlio  universal  process  of  equilibration, 
and  if  equilibration  must  end  in  complete  rest ;  wiiat  is  tlio 
fate  towards  wHch  all  things  tend  ?  If  tbe  Solar  System 
is  slowly  dissipating  its  forces — ^if  tbe  Sun  is  losing  his  heat 
at  a  rate  which  will  tell  in  millions  of  years — if  with 
diminution  of  the  Sun's  radiations  there  must  go  on  a 
diminution  in  the  activity  of  geologic  and  meteorologic 
processes  as  well  as  in  the  quantity  of  vegetal  and  animal 
existence — ^if  Man  and  Society  are  similarly  dependent  on 
this  supply  of  force  that  is  gradually  coming  to  an  end ;  are 
we  not  manifestly  progressing  towards  Omnipresent  death  V 

That  such  a  state  must  be  the  outcome  of  the  processes 
everywhere  going  on^  seems  beyond  doubt.  Whether  any 
ulterior  process  may  reverse  these  changes^  and  initiate  a 
new  life,  is  a  question  to  be  considered  hereafter.  For  the 
present  it  must  suffice  that  the  proximate  end  of  all  the 
transformations  we  have  traced,  is  a  state  of  quiescence. 
This  admits  of  a  priori  proof.  It  will  soon  become  apparent 
that  the  law  of  equilibration,  not  less  than  the  preceding 
general  laws,  is  deducible  from  the  persistence  of  force. 

We  have  seen  (§  74)  that  phenomena  are  interpretable 
only  as  the  results  of  universally-coexistent  forces  of  attrac- 
tion and  repulsion.  These  universally- coexistent  forces  of  at- 
traction and  repulsion,  are,  indeed,  the  complementary  aspects 
of  that  absolutely  persistent  force  which  is  the  ultimate  datum 
of  consciousness.  Just  in  the  same  way  that  the  equality  of 
action  and  re-action  is  a  corollary  from  the  persistence  of 
force,  since  their  inequality  would  imply  the  disappearance 
of  the  differential  force  into  nothing,  or  its  appearance  out  of 
nothing  ;  so,  we  cannot  become  conscious  of  an  attractive 
force  without  becoming  simultaneously  conscious  of  an  equal 
and  opposite  repulsive  force,  For  every  experience  of  a 
muscular  tension,  (under  which  form  alone  we  can  immedi- 
ately know  an  attractive  force,)  presupposes  an  equivalent 
resistance — a  resistance  shown  in  the  counter-balancing  pres- 
sure of  the  body  against  neighbouring  objects,  or  in  that 


EQUILIBRATION.  615 

absorption  of  force  which  gives  motion  to  the  body,  or  in 
both — a  resistance  which  we  cannot  conceive  as  other  than 
equal  to  the  tension,  without  conceiving  force  to  have  either 
appeared  or  disappeared,  and  so  denying  the  persistence  of 
force.  And  from  this  necessary  correlation,  results  our  ina- 
bility, before  pointed  out,  of  interpreting  any  phenomena 
save  in  terms  of  these  correlatives — an  inability  shown  ahke 
in  the  compulsion  we  are  under  to  think  of  the  statical  forces 
which  tangible  matter  displays,  as  due  to  the  attraction  and 
repulsion  of  its  atoms,  and  in  the  compulsion  we  are  under  to 
think  of  dynamical  forces  exercised  through  space,  by  regard- 
ing space  as  filled  with  atoms  similarly  endowed.  Thus  from 
the  existence  of  a  force  that  is  for  ever  imchangeable  in  quan- 
tity, there  follows,  as  a  necessary  corollary,  the  co-extensive 
existence  of  these  opposite  forms  of  force — forms  under 
which  the  conditions  of  our  consciousness  oblige  us  to  repre- 
sent that  absolute  force  which  transcends  our  knowledge. 

But  the  forces  of  attraction  and  repulsion  being  univer- 
sally co-existent,  it  follows,  as  before  shown,  that  all  motion 
is  motion  under  resistance.     Units  of  matter,  solid,  liquid, 
aeriform,  or  ethereal,  filling  the  space  which  any   moving 
body  traverses,  ofier  to  such  body  the  resistance  consequent 
on  their  cohesion,  or  their  inertia,  or  both.     In  other  words, 
the  denser  or  rarer  medium  which  occupies  the  places  from 
moment  to  moment  passed  through  by  such  moving  body, 
having  to  be  expelled  from  them,  as  much  motion  is  ab- 
stracted from  the  moving  body  as  is  given  to  the  medium  in 
expelling  it  from  these  places.     This  being  the  condition 
under  which  all  motion  occurs,  two  corollaries  result.     The 
first  is,  that  the  deductions  perpetually  made  by  the  com- 
munication of  motion  to  the  resisting  medium,  cannot  but 
bring  the  motion  of  the  body  to  an  end  in  a  longer  or  shorter 
time.     The  second  is,  that  the  motion  of  the  body  cannot 
cease  until  these  deductions  destroy  it.      In  other  words, 
movement  must  continue  till  equilibration  takes  place ;  and 
equilibration  must  eventually  take  place.     Both  these  are 


516  EQUILIBRATION. 

manifest  deductions  from  the  persistence  of  force.  To  say 
that  the  whole  or  part  of  a  body's  motion  can  disappear,  save 
by  transfer  to  something  which  resists  its  motion,  is  to  say 
that  the  whole  or  part  of  its  motion  can  disappear  without 
effect;  which  is  to  deny  the  persistence  of  force.  Con- 
versely, to  say  that  the  medium  traversed  can  be  moved  out  of 
the  body's  path,  without  deducting  from  the  body's  motion, 
is  to  say  that  motion  of  the  medium  can  arise  out  of  no- 
thing ;  which  is  to  deny  the  persistence  of  force.  Hence 
this  primordial  truth  is  our  immediate  warrant  for  the  con- 
clusions, that  the  changes  which  Evolution  presents,  cannot 
end  until  equilibrium  is  reached ;  and  that  equilibrium  mus\, 
at  last  be  reached. 

Equally  necessary,  because  equally  deducible  from  this 
same  truth  that  transcends  proof,  are  the  foregoing  proposi- 
tions respecting  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  mov- 
ing equilibria,  under  their  several  aspects.  It  follows  from 
the  persistence  of  force,  that  the  various  motions  possessed 
by  any  aggregate,  either  as  a  whole  or  among  its  parts,  must 
be  severally  dissipated  by  the  resistances  they  severally  en- 
counter ;  and  that  thus,  such  of  them  as  are  least  in  amount, 
or  meet  with  greatest  opposition,  or  both,  will  be  brought  to 
a  close  while  the  others  continue.  Hence  in  every  diversely 
moving  aggregate,  there  results  a  comparatively  early  dissi- 
pation of  motions  which  are  smaller  and  much  resisted  ;  fol- 
lowed by  long- continuance  of  the  larger  and  less-resisted 
motions  ;  and  so  there  arise  dependent  and  independent 
moving  equilibria.  Hence  also  may  be  inferred  the  tend- 
ency to  conservation  of  such  moving  equilibria.  For  the 
new  motion  given  to  the  parts  of  a  moving  equilibrium  by 
a  disturbing  force,  must  either  bo  of  such  kind  and  amount 
that  it  cannot  be  dissipated  before  the  pre-existing  motions, 
in  which  case  it  brings  the  moving  equilibrium  to  an  end ; 
or  else  it  must  be  of  such  kind  and  amount  that  it  can  be 
dissipated  before  the  pre-existing  motions^  in  which  caso 
the  moving  equilibrium  is  rc-estabhsLed. 


EQUILIBRATION.  517 

Thus  from  tlie  persistence  of  force  follow,  not  only  the 
various  direct  and  indirect  equilibrations  going  on  around^ 
together  with,  that  cosmical  equilibration  wbich.  brings  Evo- 
lution under  all  its  forms  to  a  close  ;  but  also  those  less 
manifest  equilibrations  shown  in  the  re- adjustments  of 
moving  equilibria  that  have  been  disturbed.  By  this 
ultimate  principle  is  provable  the  tendency  of  every 
organism,  disordered  by  some  unusual  influence,  to  return  to 
a  balanced  state.  To  it  also  may  be  traced  the  capacity, 
possessed  in  a  slight  degree  by  individuals,  and  in  a  greater 
degree  by  species,  of  becoming  adapted  to  new  circumstances. 
And  not  less  does  it  afford  a  basis  for  the  inference,  that 
there  is  a  gradual  advance  towards  harmony  between  man's 
mental  nature  and  the  conditions  of  his  existence.  After 
finding  that  from  it  are  deducible  the  various  characteristics 
of  Evolution,  we  finally  draw  from  it  a  warrant  for  the 
belief,  that  Evolution  can  end  only  in  the  establishment  of 
the  greatest  perfection  and  the  most  complete  happiness. 


CHAPTER  XXIIL 

DISSOLUTION. 

§  177.  Wteiij  in  Cliapter  XII.,  we  glanced  at  the  cycle  of 
changes  through  which  every  existence  passes,  in  its  pro- 
gress from  the  imperceptible  to  the  perceptible  and  again 
from  the  perceptible  to  the  imperceptible— when  these 
opposite  re-distributions  of  matter  and  motion  were 
severally  distinguished  as  Evolution  and  Dissolution ;  the 
natures  of  the  two,  and  the  conditions  under  which  they 
respectively  occur,  were  specified  in  general  terms.  Since 
then,  we  have  contemplated  the  phenomena  of  Evolution  in 
detail ;  and  have  followed  them  out  to  those  states  of  equili- 
brium in  which  they  all  end.  To  complete  the  argument 
we  must  now  contemplate,  somewhat  more  in  detail  than 
before,  the  complementary  phenomena  of  Dissolution.  Not, 
indeed,  that  we  need  dwell  long  on  Dissolution,  which  has 
none  of  those  various  and  interesting  aspects  which  Evolu- 
tion presents ;  but  something  more  must  be  said  than  has 
yet  been  said. 

It  was  shown  that  neither  of  these  two  antagonist  pro- 
cesses ever  goes  on  absolutely  unqualified  by  the  other; 
and  that  a  change  towards  either  is  a  differential  result  of 
the  conflict  between  them.  An  evolving  aggregate,  while 
on  the  average  losing  motion  and  integrating,  is  always,  in 
one  way  or  other,  receiving  some  motion  and  to  that  extent 
disintegrating;     and   after   the    integrative   changes   have 


DISSOLUTION  619 

ceased  to  predominate,  tlie  reception  of  motion,,  though 
perpetually  checked  by  its  dissipation,  constantly  tends  to 
produce  a  reverse  transformation,  and  eventually  does  pro- 
duce it.  When  Evolution  has  run  its  course — when  the 
aggregate  has  at  length  parted  with  its  excess  of  motion, 
and  habitually  receives  as  much  from  its  environment  as  it 
habitually  loses — when  it  has  reached  that  equilibrium  in 
which  its  changes  end ',  it  thereafter  remains  subject  to  all 
actions  in  its  environment  which  may  increase  the  quantity 
of  motion  it  contains,  and  which  in  the  lapse  of  time 
are  sure,  either  slowly  or  suddenly,  to  give  its  parts  such 
excess  of  motion  as  will  cause  disintegration.  According 
as  its  equilibrium  is  a  very  unstable  or  a  very  stable  one, 
its  dissolution  may  come  quickly  or  may  be  indefinitely  de- 
layed— may  occur  in  a  few  days  or  may  be  postponed  for 
millions  of  years.  •  But  exposed  as  it  is  to  the  contingencies 
not  simply  of  its  immediate  neighbourhood  but  of  a  Universe 
everywhere  in  motion,  the  period  must  at  last  come  when, 
either  alone  or  in  company  with  surrounding  aggregates,  it 
has  its  parts  dispersed. 

The  process  of  dissolution  so  caused^,  we  have  here  to  look 
at  as  it  takes  place  in  aggregates  of  different  orders.  The 
course  of  change  being  the  reverse  of  that  hitherto  traced, 
we  may  properly  take  the  illustrations  of  it  in  the  reverse 
order — ^beginning  with  the  most  complex  and  ending  with 
the  most  simple. 

§  178.  Ecgarding  the  evolution  of  a  society  as  at  onco 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  individuals  integrated  into  a 
corporate  body,  an  increase  in  the  masses  and  varieties  of 
the  parts  into  which  this  corporate  body  divides  as  well  as 
of  the  actions  called  their  functions,  and  an  increase  in  the 
degree  of  combination  among  these  masses  and  their  func- 
tions j  we  shall  see  that  social  dissolution  conforms  to  the 
general  law  in  being,  materially  considered,  a  disintegration, 
and,  dynamically  considered,  a  decrease  in  the  movements 


520 


DISSOLUTION. 


of  wholes  and  an  increase  in  the  movements  of  parts ;  wliilo 
it  further  conforms  to  the  general  law  in  being  caused  by 
an  excess  of  motion  in  some  way  or  other  received  from 
without. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  social  dissolution  which  follows  the 
aggression  of  another  nation^  and  which,  as  history  shows 
us,  is  apt  to  occur  when  social  evolution  has  ended  and 
decay  has  begun,  is,  under  its  broadest  aspect,  the  incidence 
of  a  new  external  motion;  and  when,  as  sometimes 
happens,  the  conquered  society  is  dispersed,  its  dissolu- 
tion is  literally  a  cessation  of  those  corporate  movements 
which  the  society,  both  in  its  army  and  in  its  industrial 
bodies,  presented,  and  a  lapse  into  individual  or  uncombined 
movements — the  motion  of  units  replaces  the  motion  of 
masses. 

It  cannot  be  questioned,  either,  that  when  plague  or  famine 
at  home,  or  a  revolution  abroad,  gives  to  any  society  an  un- 
usual shock  that  causes  disorder,  or  incipient  dissolution, 
there  results  a  decrease  of  integrated  movements  and  an  in- 
crease of  disintegrated  movements.  As  the  disorder  pro- 
gresses, the  political  actions  previously  combined  under  one 
government  become  uncombined :  there  arise  the  antagon- 
istic actions  of  riot  or  revolt.  Simultaneously,  the  indus- 
trial and  commercial  processes  that  were  co-ordinated 
throughout  the  whole  body  pohtic,  are  broken  up;  and 
only  the  local,  or  small,  trading  transactions  continue. 
And  each  further  disorganizing  change  diminishes  the 
joint  operations  by  which  men  satisfy  their  wants,  and 
leaves  them  to  satisfy  their  wants,  so  far  as  they  can,  by 
separate  operations.  Of  the  way  in  which  such 

d  isintegrations  are  liable  to  be  set  up  in  a  society  that  has 
evolved  to  the  limit  of  its  type,  and  reached  a  state  of 
moving  equilibrium,  a  good  illustration  is  furnished  by 
Japan.  The  finished  fabric  into  wHch  its  people  had 
organizcd.themselves,  maintained  an  almost  constant  state 
so  long  as  it  was  preserved  from  fresh  external  forces.     But 


DISSOLUTION.  521 

as  soon  as  it  received  an  impact  from  European  civilization, 
partly  by  armed  aggression,  partly  by  commercial  impulsCj 
partly  by  the  influence  of  ideas,  tliis  fabric  began  to  fall  tc 
pieces.  There  is  now  in  progress  a  political  dissolution. 
Probably  a  political  re-organization  will  follow ;  but,  be  this 
as  it  may,  the  change  thus  far  produced  by  an  outer  action 
is  a  change  towards  dissolution — a  change  from  integrated 
motions  to  disintegrated  motions. 

Even  where  a  society  that  has  developed  into  the  highest 
form  permitted  by  the  characters  of  its  units,  begins  there- 
after to  dwindle  and  decay,  the  progressive  dissolution  i» 
still  essentially  of  the  same  nature.  Dechne  of  numbers  is, 
in  such  case,  brought  about  partly  by  emigration;  for  a 
society  having  the  fixed  structure  in  which  evolution  ends, 
is  necessarily  one  that  will  not  yield  and  modify  under 
pressure  of  population :  so  long  as  its  structure  -will  yield 
and  modify,  it  is  still  evolving.  Hence  the  surplus  popula- 
tion continually  produced,  not  held  together  by  an  organiza- 
tion that  adapts  itself  to  an  augmenting  number,  is  continually 
dispersed  :  the  influences  brought  to  bear  on  the  citizens  by 
other  societies,  cause  their  detachment,  and  there  is  an  in- 
crease in  the  uncombined  motions  of  units  instead  of  an  in- 
crease of  combined  motions.  Gradually  as  rigidity  becomes 
greater,  and  the  society  becomes  still  less  capable  of  being 
re-moulded  into  the  form  required  for  successful  competition 
with  growing  and  more  plastic  societies,  the  number  of 
citizens  who  can  live  within  its  unyielding  framework 
becomes  positively  smaller.  Hence  it  dwindles  both 
through  continued  emigration  and  through  the  diminished 
multiplication  that  follows  innutrition.  And  this  further 
dwindling  or  dissolution,  caused  by  the  number  of  those 
who  die  becoming  greater  than  the  number  of  those 
who  survive  long  enough  to  rear  ofispring,  is  similarly  a 
decrease  in  the  total  quantity,  of  combined  motion  and  an 
increase  in  the  qua  ntity  of  uncombined  motion — as  we  shall 
presently  see  when  we  come  to  deal  with  individual  dissolution. 


522  DISSOLUTION. 

Considering,  then,  that  social  aggregates  dijQTer  so  mucli 
from  aggregates  of  other  kinds,  formed  as  they  are  of  units 
held  together  loosely  and  indirectly,  in  such  variable  ways 
by  such  complex  forces,  the  process  of  dissolution  among 
them  conforms  to  the  general  law  quite  as  clearTy  as  could 
be  expected. 

§  179.  When  from  these  super-organic  Aggregates  we  de- 
scend to  organic  aggregates,  the  truth  that  Dissolution  is  a 
disintegration  of  matter,  caused  by  the  reception  of  ad- 
ditional motion  from  without,  becomes  easily  demonstrable. 
We  will  look  first  at  the  transformation  and  afterwards  at 
its  cause. 

Death,  or  that  final  equilibration  which  precedes  dissolu- 
tion, is  the  bringing  to  a  close  of  all  those  conspicuous 
integrated  motions  that  arose  during  evolution.  The 
impulsions  of  the  body  from  place  to  place  first  cease ;  pre- 
sently the  limbs  cannot  be  stirred ;  later  still  the  respira- 
tory actions  stop;  finally  the  heart  becomes  stationary,  and, 
with  it,  the  circulating  fluids.  That  is,  the  transformation 
of  molecular  motion  into  the  motion  of  masses,  comes  to 
an  end;  and  each  of  these  motions  of  masses,  as  it  ends, 
disappears  into  molecular  motions.  What  next  takes  place  ? 
We  cannot  say  that  there  is  any  further  transformation  of 
sensible  movements  into  insensible  movements ;  for  sensible 
movements  no  longer  exist.  Nevertheless,  the  process  of 
decay  involves  an  increase  of  insensible  movements ;  since 
these  are  far  greater  in  the  gases  generated  by  decomposi- 
tion, than  they  are  in  the  fluid-sohd  matters  out  of  which  the 
gases  arise.  Each  of  the  complex  chemical  units  composing 
an  organic  body,  possesses  a  rhythmic  motion  in  which  its 
many  component  units  jointly  partake.  When  decomposition 
breaks  up  these  complex  molecules,  and  their  constituents 
assume  gaseous  forms,  there  is,  besides  that  increase  of 
motion  implied  by  the  diffusion,  a  resolution  of  such 
motions  as  the  aggregate  molecules  possessed,  into  motions 


DISSOLUTION.  Iy2d 

»f  their  constituent  molecules.  So  tliat  in  organic  dissolu- 
tion we  have^  firsts  an  end  put  to  that  transformation  of  the 
motion  of  units  into  the  motion  of  aggregates^  which  con- 
stitutes evolution,  dynamically  considered;  and  we  have 
also,  though  in  a  subtler  "sense,  a  transformation  of  tho 
motion  of  aggregates  into  the  motion  of  units.  Still  it  is 
not  thus  shown  that  organic  dissolution  fully  answers  to  the 
general  definition  of  dissolution — the  absorption  of  motion 
and  concomitant  disintegration  of  matter.  The  disintegra- 
tion of  matter  is,  indeed,  conspicuous  .enough ;  but  the  ab- 
sorption of  motion  is  not  conspicuous.  True,  the  fact  that 
motion  has  been  absorbed  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  the  particles  previously  integrated  into  a  solid  mass, 
occupying  a  small  space,  have  most  of  them  moved  away 
from  one  another  and  now  occupy  a  great  space ;  for  the 
motion  imphed  by  this  transposition  must  have  been  ob- 
tained from  somewhere.  But  its  source  is  not  obvious.  A 
little  search,  however,  will  bring  us  to  its  derivation. 

At  a  temperature  below  the  freezing  point  of  water,  de- 
composition of  organic  matter  does  not  take  place — the 
integrated  motions  of  the  highly  integrated  molecules  are 
not  resolved  into  the  disintegrated  motions  of  their  com- 
ponent molecules.  Dead  bodies  kept  at  this  temperature 
for  an  indefinitely  long  period,  are  prevented  from  decom- 
posing for  an  indefinitely  long  period :  witness  tho  frozen 
carcases  of  Mammoths — Elephants  of  a  species  long  ago 
extinct — that  are  found  imbedded  in  the  ice  at  the  mouths 
of  Siberian  rivers;  and  which,  though  they  have  been  there 
for  many  thousands  of  years,  have  flesh  so  fresh  that  when 
at  length  exposed,  it  is  devoured  by  wolves.  What  now  is 
the  meaning  of  such  exceptional  preservations?  A  body 
kept  below  freezing  point,  is  a  body  which  receives  very 
little  heat  by  radiation  or  conduction ;  and  the  reception  of 
but  little' heat  is  tho  reception  of  but  little  molecular  motion. 
That  is  to  say,  in  an  environment  which  does  not  furnish  it 
with  molecular  motion  passing  a  certain  amount,  an  organic 


624  mssoLunoH. 

body  does  not  undergo  diBsolution.  Confirmatory 

evidence  is  yielded  by  the  variations  in  rate  of  dissolution 
wliicL.  accompany  variations  of  temperature.  All  know  that 
in  cool  weather  the  organic  substances  used  in  our  house- 
holds keep  longer_,  as  we  say,  than  in  hot  weather.  Equally 
certain^  if  less  familiar,  is  the  fact  that  in  tropical  climates 
decay  proceeds  much  more  rapidly  than  in  temperate 
climates.  Thus,  in  proportion  as  the  molecular  motion  of 
surrounding  matter  is  great,  the  dead  organism  receives  an 
abundant  supply  of  motion  to  replace  the  motion  continually 
taken  up  by  the  dispersing  molecules  of  the  gases  into 
which  it  is  being  disintegrated.  The  still  quicker 

decompositions  produced  by  exposure  to  artificially-raised 
temperatures,  aSbrd  further  proofs ;  as  instance  those  which 
occur  in  cooking.  The  charred  surfaces  of  parts  that  havo 
been  much  heated,  show  us  that  the  molecular  motion 
absorbed  has  served  to  dissipate  in  gaseous  forms  all  the 
elements  but  the  carbon. 

The  nature  and  cause  of  Dissolution  are  thus  clearly  dis- 
played by  the  aggregates  which  so  clearly  display  tho 
nature  and  cause  of  Evolution.  One  of  these  aggregates 
being  composed  of  that  peculiar  matter  to  which  a  large 
quantity  of  constitutional  motion  gives  great  plasticity,  and 
the  ability  to  evolve  into  a  highly  compound  form  (§  103) ; 
we  see  that  after  evolution  has  ceased,  a  very  moderate 
amount  of  molecular  motion,  added  to  that  already  locked 
up  in  its  peculiar  matter,  suffices  to  cause  dissolution. 
Though  at  death  there  is  reached  a  stable  equilibrium 
among  the  sensible  masses,  or  organs,  which  make  up  the 
body;  yet,  as  the  insensible  units  or  molecules  of  which 
these  organs  consist  are  in  unstable  equilibrium,  small 
incident  forces  suffice  to  overthrow  them,  and  hence  disin- 
tegration proceeds  rapidly. 

§  180.  Most    inorganic  aggregates,    having    arrived    at 


DISSOLUTION,  bZb 

dense  forms  in  whicb  comparatively  little  motion  is  retained, 
remain  long  without  marked  changes.  EacL.  lias  lost  so 
mncli  motion  in  passing  from  the  disintegrated  to  the  inte- 
grated state,  that  much  motion  must  be  given  to  it  to 
cause  resumption  of  the  disintegrated  state;  and  an  im- 
mense time  may  elapse  before  there  occur  in  the  environ- 
ment, changes  great  enough  to  communicate  to  it  tho 
requisite  quantity  of  motion.  We  will  look  first  at  those 
exceptional  inorganic  aggregates  which  retain  much  motion, 
and  therefore  readily  undergo  dissolution. 

Among  these  are  the  liquids  and  volatile  solids  which 
dissipate  under  ordinary  conditions — water  that  evaporates, 
carbonate  of  ammonia  that  wastes  away  by  the  dispersion  of 
its  molecules.  In  all  such  cases  motion  is  absorbed;  and 
always  the  dissolution  is  rapid  in  proportion  as  the  quantity 
of  heat  or  motion  which  the  aggregated  mass  receives  from 
its  environment  is  gi'eat.  Next  come  the  cases  in 

which  the  molecules  of  a  highly  integrated  or  solid  aggre- 
gate, are  dispersed  among  the  molecules  of  a  less  integrated 
or  liquid  aggregate;  as  in  aqueous  solutions.  One  evidence 
that  this  disintegration  of  matter  has  for  its  concomitant 
the  absorption  of  motion,  is  that  soluble  substances  dissolve 
the  more  quickly  the  hotter  the  water :  supposing  always  that 
no  elective  affinity  comes  into  play.  Another  and  still  more 
conclusive  evidence  is,  that  when  crystals  of  a  given  tem- 
perature are  placed  in  water  of  the  same  temperature,  the 
process  of  solution  is  accompanied  by  a  fall  of  tempera- 
ture— often  a  very  great  one.  Omitting  instances  in 
which  some  chemical  action  takes  place  between  the  salt 
and  the  water,  it  is  a  uniform  law  that  the  motion  which 
disperses  the  molecules  of  the  salt  through  the  water,  is 
at  the  expense  of  the  molecular  motion  possessed  by  the 
water. 

Masses  of  sediment  accumulated  into  strata,  afterwards 
compressed  by  many  thousands  of  feet  of  superincumbent 
strata*  and   reduced   in    course  of  time    to    a  solid  state. 


52tf  DISSOLUTION. 

may  remain  for  millions  of  years  unchanged ;  but  in  sub- 
sequent millions  of  years  tliey  are  inevitably  exposed  to 
disintegrating  actions.  Raised  along  with  other  such  masses 
into  a  continent,  denuded  and  exposed  to  rain,  frost,  and 
the  grinding  actions  of  glaciers,  they  have  their  particles 
gradually  separated,  carried  away,  and  widely  dispersed. 
Or  when,  as  otherwise  happens,  the  encroaching  sea  reaches 
them,  the  undermined  cliffs  which  they  form  fall  from  time 
to  time,  breaking  into  fragments  of  all  sizes ;  the  waves, 
rolling  about  the  small  pieces,  and  in  storms  turning  over 
and  knocking  together  the  larger  blocks,  reduce  them  to 
boulders  and  pebbles,  and  at  last  to  sand  and  mud.  Even  if 
portions  of  the  disintegrated  strata  accumulate  into  shingle 
banks,  which  afterwards  become  solidified,  the  process  of 
dissolution,  arrested  though  it  may  be  for  some  enormous 
geologic  period,  is  finally  resumed.  As  many  a  shore 
shows  us,  the  conglomerate  itself  is  sooner  or  later  subject 
to  the  like  processes ;  and  its  cemented  masses  of  hetero- 
geneous components,  lying  on  the  beach,  are  broken  up  and 
\C^orn  away  by  impact  and  attrition — that  is,  by  communicated 
mechanical  motion. 

When  not  thus  effected,  the  disintegration  is  effected  by 
communicated  molecular  motion.  The  consolidated  stratum, 
located  in  some  area  of  subsidence,  and  brought  down  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  regions  occupied  by  molten  matter,  comes 
eventually  to  have  its  particles  brought  to  a  plastic  state  by 
heat,  or  finally  melted  down  into  liquid.  Whatever  may  be 
its  subsequent  transformations,  the  transformation  then  ex- 
hibited by  it  is  an  absorption  of  motion  and  disintegration 
of  matter. 

Be  it  simple  or  compound,  small  or  large,  a  crystal  or  s 
mountain  chain,  every  inorganic  aggregate  on  the  Earth, 
thus,  at  some  time  or  other,  undergoes  a  reversal  of  those 
changes  undergone  during  its  evolution.  Not  that  it  usually 
passes  back  completely  from  the  perceptible  into  the  imper- 
ceptible; as  organic  aggregates   do  in  great  part,  if  not 


DISSOLUTION.  527 

wholly.  But  still  its  disintegration  and  dispersion  carry 
it  some  distance  on  tlie  way  towards  the  imperceptible;  and 
there  are  reasons  for  thinking  that  its  arrival  there  is 
but  delayed.  At  a  period  immeasurably  remote,  every  such 
inorganic  aggregate,  along  with  all  undissipated  remnants 
of  organic  aggregates,  must  be  reduced  to  a  state 
of  gaseous  diffusion,  and  so  complete  the  cycle  of  its 
changes. 

§  181.  For  the  Earth  as  a  whole,  wben  it  has  gone 
through  the  entire  series  of  its  ascending  transformations, 
must  remain,  like  all  smaller  aggregates,  exposed  to  the 
contingencies  of  its  environment;  and  in  the  course  of 
those  ceaseless  changes  in  progress  throughout  a  Universe 
of  wbich.  all  parts  are  in  motion,  must,  at  some  period  be- 
yond th.e  utmost  stretch,  of  imagination,  be  subject  to  forces 
sufficient  to  cause  its  complete  disintegration.  Let  us 
glance  at  the  forces  competent  to  disintegrate  it. 

In  his  essay  on  "The  Inter-action  of  Natural  Forces," 
Prof.  Helmkoltz  states  the  thermal  equivalent  of  the  Earth's, 
movement  through  space,  as  calculated  on  the  now  received 
datum  of  Mr.  Joule.  "  If  our  Earth,''  lie  says,  "  were  by  a 
sudden  shock  brought  to  rest  in  ber  orbit, — wkich  is  not  to 
be  feared  in  the  existing  arrangement  of  our  system — by 
such,  a  shock  a  quantity  of  beat  would  be  generated  equal 
to  that  produced  by  the  combustion  of  fom-teen  such.  Earths 
of  solid  coal.  Making  the  most  unfavourable  assumption 
as  to  its  capacity  for  heat,  that  is,  placing  it  equal  to  that 
of  water,  the  maSs  of  the  Earth,  would  thereby  be  beated 
11,200  degrees;  it  would  therefore  be  quite  fused,  and  for 
the  most  part  reduced  to  vapour.  If  then  the  Earth, 
after  having  been  thus  brought  to  rest,  should  fall 
into  the  Sun,  which  of  course  would  be  the  case,  the 
quantity  of  heat  developed  by  the  shock  would  be  400 
times    greater."  Now    though    this    calculation 

seems   to  be  nothing    to  the  purpose,  since  the   Earth  is 


528  DISSOLUTION. 

not  likely  to  be  suddenly  arrested  in  its  orbit  and  not  likely 
therefore  suddenly  to  fall  into  tbe  Sun ;  yet^  as  before  pointed 
out  (§  171)j  there  is  a  force  at  work  which  it  is  held  must 
at  last  bring  the  Earth  into  the  Sun.  This  force  is  the  re- 
sistance of  the  ethereal  medium.  From  ethereal  resistance 
is  inferred  a  retardation  of  all  moving  bodies  in  the  Solar 
System — a  retardation  which  certain  astronomers  contend 
even  now  shows  its  effects  in  the  relative  nearness  to  one 
another  of  the  orbits  of  the  older  planets.  If,  then,  retarda- 
tion is  going  on,  there  must  come  a  time,  no  matter  how 
remote,  when  the  slowly  diminishing  orbit  of  the  Earth  will 
end  in  the  Sun ;  and  though  the  quantity  of  molar  motion 
to  be  then  transformed  into  molecular  motion,  will  not  be 
so  great  as  that  which  the  calculation  of  Helmholtz  supposes, 
it  will  be  great  enough  to  reduce  the  substance  of  the  Earth 
to  a  gaseous  state. 

This  dissolution  of  the  Earth,  and,  at  intervals,  of  every 
other  planet,  is  not,  however,  a  dissolution  of  the  Solar 
System.  Viewed  in  their  ensemhlej  all  the  changes  ex- 
hibited throughout  the  Solar  System,  are  incidents  accom- 
panying the  integration  of  the  entire  matter  composing  it : 
the  local  integration  of  which  each  planet  is  the  scene, 
completing  itself  long  before  the  general  integration  is 
complete.  But  each  secondary  mass  having  gone  through 
its  evolution  and  reached  a  state  of  equilibrium  among  its 
parts,  thereafter,  continues  in  its  extinct  state,  until  by  the 
still  progressing  general  integration  it  is  brought  into  the 
central  mass.  And  though  each  such  union  of  a  secondary 
mass  with  the  central  mass,  implying  transformation  of 
molar  motion  into  molecular  motion,  causes  partial  dif- 
fusion of  the  total  mass  formed,  and  adds  to  the  quantity  of 
motion  that  has  to  be  dispersed  in  the  shape  of  light  and 
heat ;  yet  it  does  but  postpone  the  period  at  which  the  total 
mass  must  become  completely  integrated,  and  its  excess  of 
contained  motion  radiated  into  space. 


DISSOLUTION.  52t) 

*  §  182.  Here  we  come  to  tlie  question  raised  at  tlie  close 
of  the  last  chapter — does  Evolution  as  a  whole,  like  Evolu- 
tion in  detail,  advance  towards  complete  quiescence  ?  Is 
that  motionless  state  called  death,  which  ends  Evolution  in 
organic  bodies,  typical  of  the  universal  death  in  which  Evo- 
lution at  large  must  end  ?  And  have  we  thus  to  contem- 
plate as  the  outcome  of  things,  a  boundless  space  holding 
here  and  there  extinct  suns,  fated  to  remain  for  ever  with- 
out further  change. 

To  so  speculative  an  inquiry,  none  but  a  speculative 
answer  is  to  be  expected.  Such  answer  as  may  be  ventured, 
must  be  taken  less  as  a  positive  answer  than  as  a  demurrer 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  proximate  result  must  be  the 
ultimate  result.  If,  pushing  to  its  extreme  the  argument 
that  Evolution  must  come  to  a  close  in  complete  equilibrium 
or  rest,  the  reader  suggests  that  for  aught  which  appears  to 
the  contrary,  the  Universal  Death  thus  impHed  will  con- 
tinue indefinitely,  it  is  legitimate  to  point  out  how,  on 
carrying  the  argument  still  further,  we  are  led  to  infer  a 
subsequent  Universal  Life.  Let  us  see  what  may  bo 
assigned  as  grounds  for  inferring  this. 

It  has  been  already  shown  that '  all  equilibration,  so  far 
as  we  can  trace  it,  is  relative.  The  dissipation  of  a  body^s 
motion  by  communication  of  it  to  surrounding  matter,  solid, 
liquid,  gaseous,  and  ethereal,  brings  the  body  to  a  fixe*" 
position  in  relation  to  the  matter  that  abstracts  its  motion. 
But  all  its  other  motions  continue.  Further,  this  motion, 
the  disappearance  of  which  causes  relative  equihbration,  is 
not  lost  but  simply  transferred.  Whether  it  is  directly 
transformed  into  insensible  motion,  as  happens  in  the  case 
of  the  Sun ;  or,  whether,  as  in  the  sensible  motions  going 
on  around  us,  it  is' directly  transformed  into  smaller  sensible 

*  Thougli  this  chapter  is  new,  this  section,  and  the  one  following  it,  avr 
not  new.  In  the  first  edition  they  were  included  in  the  final  section  of  tho 
foregoing  chapter.  While  substantially  the  same  as  before,  the  argument 
has  been  in  some  places  abbreviated  ajid  in  other  places  enforced  by  addi- 
tional matter. 

24 


530  DISSOLUTION.- 

motions,  and  tliese  into  still  smaller,  until  tliey  become  in- 
sensible, matters  not.  In  every  instance  the  ultimate  result 
is,  tbat  "wliatever  motion  of  masses  is  lost,  re-appcars  as 
molecular  motion  pervading  space.  Thus  tbe  questions  we 
bave  to  consider,  are — ^Wbetber  after  tbe  completion  of  all 
the  relative  equilibration's  wbicb  bring  Evolution  to  a  close, 
tbere  remain  any  further  equilibrations  to  be  eflected  ? — 
Wbetlier  there  are  any  other  motions  of  masses  that  must 
eventually  be  transformed  into  molecular  motion  ? — ^And  if 
there  are  such  other  motions,  what  must  be  the  consequence 
when  the  molecular  motion  generated  by  their  transforma- 
tion, is  added  to  that  which  abeady  exists  ? 

To  the  first  of  these  questions  the  answer  is,  that  there  do 
remain  motions  which  are  undiminished  by  all  the  relative 
equilibrations  we  have  considered ;  namely,  the  motions  of 
translation  possessed  by  those  vast  masses  of  matter  called 
stars — remote  suns  that  are  probably,  like  our  own,  sur- 
rounded by  circling  groups  of  planets.  The  belief  that  the 
stars  are  fixed,  has  long  since  been  abandoned:  observation 
has  proved  many  of  them  to  have  sensible  proper  motions. 
Moreover,  it  has  been  ascertained  by  measurement  that  in 
relation  to  the  stars  nearest  to  us,  our  own  star  travels  at 
the  rate  of  about  half  a  million  miles  per  day ;  and  if,  as  is 
admitted  to  be  not  improbable,  our  own  star  is  moving  in 
the  same  direction  with  adjacent  stars,  its  absolute  velocity 
may  be,  and  most  likely  is,  immensely  greater  than  this. 
Now  no  such  changes  as  "those  taking  place  within  the  Solar 
System,  even  when  carried  to  the  extent  of  integrating  the 
whole  of  its  naatter  into  one  mass,  and  difiusing  all  its 
relative  motions  in  an  insensible  form  through  space,  can 
afiect  these  sidereal  motions.  Hence,  there  appears  no  alter- 
native but  to  infer  that  they  must  remain  to  be  equilibrated 
by  some  subsequent  process. 

The  next  question  that  arises  is — To  what  law  do  sidereal 
motions  conform?  And  to  this  question  Astronomy  replies — 
the  law  of  gravitation.    The  movements  of  binary  stars  havo 


DISSOLUTION.  531 

proved  this.  The  periodic  times  of  sundry  binary  stars  have 
been  calculated  on  the  assumption  that  their  revolutions  are 
determined  by  a  force  like  that  which  regulates  the  revolu- 
tions -of  planets  and  satellites ;  and  the  subsequent  perfor- 
mances of  their  revolutions  in  the  predicted  periods^  have 
verified  the  assumption.  If,  then^  these  remote  bodies  are 
centres  of  gravitation — if  we  infer  that  all  other  stars  are 
centres  of  gravitation,  as  we  may  fairly  do — and  if  we  draw 
the  unavoidable  corollary,  that  the  gravitative  force  which 
so  conspicuously  affects  stars  that  are  near  one  another, 
also  affects  remote  stars ;  we  must  conclude  that  all  the 
members  of  our  Sidereal  System  gravitate,  individually  and 
collectively. 

But  if  these  widely-dispersed  moving  masses  mutually 
gravitate,  what  must  happen  ?  There  appears  but  one  ten- 
able answer.  They  cannot  preserve  their  present  arrange- 
ment :  the  irregular  distribution  of  our  Sidereal  System 
being  such  as  to  render  even  a  temporary  moving  equi- 
librium impossible.  If  the  stars  are  centres  of  an  attractive 
force  that  varies  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance, 
there  is  no  escape  from  the  inference  that  the  structure  of 
our  galaxy  is  undergoing  change,  and  must  continue  to 
undergo  change. 

Thus,  in  the  absence  of  tenable  alternatives,  we  are 
brought  to  the  positions  : — 1,  that  the  stars  are  in  motion ; 
— 2,  that  they  move  in  conformity  with  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion ; — 3,  that,  distributed  as  they  are,  they  cannot  move  in 
conformity  with  the  law  of  gravitation,  without  under- 
going re-arrangement.  If  now  we  ask  the  nature  of  this 
re-arrangement,  we  find  ourselves  obliged  to  infer  a  pro- 
gressive concentration.  Stars  at  present  dispersed,  must 
become  locally  aggregated ;  existing  aggregations  (except- 
ing, perhaps,  the  globular  clusters)  must  grow  more  dense ; 
and  aggregations  must  coalesce  with  one  another.  That 
integration  has  been  progressing  throughout  past  eras,  we 
found  to  be  indicated  by  the  structure  of  the  heavens,  in 


532  DISSOLUTION. 

general  and  in  detail ;  and  of  tlie  extent  to  wliicli  it  has  in 
some  places  already  gone^  remarkable  instances  are  furnislied 
by  tlie  Magellanic  clouds — two  closely-packed  agglomera- 
tions, not,  indeed,  of  single  stars  only,  but  of  single  stars, 
of  clusters  regular  and  irregular,  of  nebulae,  and  of  diffused 
nebulosity.  Tbat  these  have  been  formed  by  mutual  gi*avi- 
tation  of  parts  once  widely  scattered,  there  is  evidence  in 
the  barrenness  of  the  surrounding  celestial  spaces  :  the  nu. 
becula  minor,  especially,  being  seated,  as  Humboldt  says, 
in  ^^  a  kind  of  starless  desert/' 

"What  must  be  the  limit  of  such  concentrations?  The 
mutual  attraction  of  two  stars,  when  it  so  far  predominates 
over  other  attractions  as  to  cause  approximation,  almost 
certainly  ends  in  the  formation  of  a  binary  star;  since  the 
motions  generated  by  other  attractions  prevent  the  two 
stars  from  moving  in  straight  lines  to  their  common  centre 
of  gravity.  Between  small  clusters,  too,  having  also  certain 
proper  motions  as  clusters,  mutual  attraction  may  lead,  not 
to  complete  union,  but  to  the  formation  of  binary  clusters. 
As  the  process  continues,  however,  and  the  clusters  become 
larger,  they  must  move  more  directly  towards  each  other : 
thus  forming  clusters  of  increasing  density.  While,  there- 
fore, during  the  earlier  stages  of  concentration,  the  pro- 
babilities are  immense  against  the  actual  contact  of  these 
mutually-gravitating  masses ;  it  is  tolerably  manifest  that, 
as  the  concentration  increases,  collision  must  become 
probable,  and  ultimately  certain.  This  is  an  inference  not 
lacking  the  support  of  high  authority.  Sir  John  Herschcl, 
treating  of  those  numerous  and  variously  -  aggregated 
clusters  of  stars  revealed  by  the  telescope,  and  citing  with 
apparent  approval  his  father's  opinion,  that  the  more  diffused 
and  irregular  of  these,  are  "  globular  clusters  in  a  less  ad- 
vanced state  of  condensation  /'  subsequently  remarks,  that 
''  among  a  crowd  of  solid  bodies  of  whatever  size,  animated 
by  independent  and  partially  opposing  impulses,  motions  op- 
posite to  each  other  must  produce  collision,  destruction  of 


DISSOLUTION.  boo 

Telocity^  and  subsidence  or  near  approacli  towards  tlie 
centre  of  preponderant  attraction ;  wMle  tliose  wliicli  con- 
Bpire,  or  wliicli  remain  outstanding  after  such,  conflicts, 
must  ultimately  give  rise  to  circulation  of  a  permanent 
character/^  Now  what  is  here  alleged  of  these  minor 
clusters,  cannot  be  denied  of  larger  clusters ;  and  thus  the 
above-inferred  process  of  concentration,  appears  certain  to 
bring  about  an  increasingly-frequent  integration  of  masses. 
We  have  next  to  consider  the  consequences  of  the  accom- 
panying loss  of  velocity.  The  sensible  motion  which  disap- 
pears cannot  be  destroyed,  but  must  be  transformed  into 
insensible  motion.  "What  will  be  the  effect  of  this  insensible 
motion  ?  Already  we  have  seen  that  were  the  Earth  ar- 
rested, dissipation  of  its  substance  would  result.  And  if 
BO  relatively  small  a  momentum  as  that  acquired  by  the 
Earth  in  falling  to  the  Sun,  would  be  equivalent  to  a  mole- 
cular motion  sufficient  to  reduce  the  Earth  to  gases  of  ex- 
treme rarity ;  what  must  be  the  molecular  motion  generated 
by  the  mutually-arrested  momenta  of  two  stars,  that  have 
moved  to  their  common  centre  of  gravity  through  spaces 
immeasurably  greater  ?  There  seems  no  alternative  but  to 
conclude,  that  it  would  be  great  enough  to  reduce  the 
matter  of  the  stars  to  an  almost  inconceivable  tenuity — a  te- 
nuity like  that  which  we  ascribe  to  nebular  matter.  Such 
being  the  immediate  effect,  what  would  be  the  ulterior  effect  ? 
Sir  John  Herschel,  in  the  passage  above  quoted,  describing 
the  collisions  that  must  arise  in  a  concentrating  group  of 
stars,  adds  that  those  stars  ''which  remain  outstanding 
after  such  conflicts  must  ultimately  give  rise  to  circula- 
tion of  a  permanent  character.'^  The  problem,  however,  is 
here  dealt  with  purely  as  a  mechanical  one :  the  assump- 
tion being  that  the  mutually-arrested  masses  will  con- 
tinue as  masses — an  assumption  to  which  no  objection  ap- 
peared at  the  time  when  Sir  John  Herschel  wrote  this 
passage ;  since  the  correlation  of  forces  was  not  then  re- 
cognized.    But  obliged  as  we  now  are  to  conclude,  that 


53 1  DISSOLUTION. 

stars  moving  at  the  higli  velocities  acquired  during  concen- 
tration, will,  by  mutual  arrest,  be  dissipated  into  gases,  tlie 
problem  becomes  different ;  and  a  different  inference  seems 
unavoidable.  For  the  diffused  matter  produced  by  such  con- 
flicts must  form  a  resisting  medium,  occupying  that  central 
region  of  the  cluster  through  which  its  members  from  time 
to  time  pass  in  describing  their  orbits — a  resisting  medium 
which  they  cannot  move  through  without  having  their  velo- 
cities diminished.  Every  additional  collision,  by  augment- 
ing this  resisting  medium,  and  making  the  losses  of  velocity 
greater,  must  aid  in  preventing  the  establishment  of  that 
equilibrium  which  would  else  arise  j  and  so  must  conspire 
to.  produce  more  frequent  collisions.  And  the  nebulous 
matter  thus  formed,  presently  enveloping  the  whole  cluster, 
must,  by  continuing  to  shorten  the  gyrations  of  the  moving 
masses,  entail  an  increasingly  active  integration  and  re- 
active disintegration  of  them;  until  they  are  all  dissi- 
pated. Whether  this  process  completes  itself  inde- 
pendently in  different  parts  of  our  Sidereal  System ;  or 
whether  it  completes  itself  only  by  aggregating  the  whole 
matter  of  our  Sidereal  System ;  or  whether,  as  seems  not 
unlikely,  local  integrations  and  disintegrations  run  their 
courses  while  the  general  integration  is  going  on ;  are  ques- 
tions that  need  noli  be  discussed.  In  any  case  the  conclu- 
sion to  be  drawn  is,  that  the  integration  must  continue  until 
the  conditions  which  bring  about  disintegration  are  reached; 
and  that  there  must  then  ensue  a  diffusion  that  undoes  the 
preceding  concentration.  This,  indeed,  is  the  con- 
clusion which  presents  itself  as  a  deduction  from  the  persist- 
ence of  force.  If  stars  concentrating  to  a  common  centre  ol 
gravity,  eventually  reach  it,  then  the  quantities  of  motior 
they  have  acquired  must  suffice  to  carry  them  away  again  tc 
those  remote  regions  whence  they  started.  And  since,  by  tlif 
conditions  of  the  case,  they  cannot  return  to  these  remote 
regions  in  the  shape  of  concrete  masses,  they  must  return 
in  the  shape  of  diffused  masses.     Action  and  reaction  being 


DISSOLUTION.  535 

equal  and  opposite,  tlie  momentum  producing  dispersion, 
must  be  as  great  as  tKe  momentum  acquired  by  aggregation; 
and  being  spread  over  tlie  same  quantity  of  matter,  must 
cause  an  equivalent  distribution  tlirougb  space,  whatever  be 
tbe  form  of  tlie  matter.  One  condition,  however, 

essential  to  the  literal  fulfilment  of  this  result,  must  be 
specified;  namely,  that  the  quantity  of  molecular  motion 
radiated  into  space  by  each  star  in  the  course  of  its  forma- 
tion from  difiused  matter,  shall  either  not  escape  from  our 
Sidereal  System  or  shall  be  compensated  by  an  equal  quan- 
tity of  molecular  motion  radiated  from  other  parts  of  space 
into  our  Sidereal  System.  In  other  words,  if  we  set  out 
with  that  amount  of  molecular  motion  implied  by  the  exist- 
ence of  the  matter  of  our  Sidereal  System  in  a  nebulous 
form;  then  it  follows  from  the  persistence  of  force,  that  if 
this  matter  undergoes  the  re-distribution  constituting  Evo- 
lution, the  quantity  of  molecular  motion  given  out  during 
the  integration  of  each  mass,  plus  the  quantity  of  molecular 
motion  given  out  during  the  integration  of  all  the  masses, 
must  suffice  again  to  reduce  it  to  the  same  nebulous  form. 

Here,  indeed,  we  arrive  at  a  barrier  to  our  reasonings ; 
since  we  cannot  know  whether  this  condition  is  or  is  not 
fulfilled.  If  the  ether  which  fills  the  interspaces  of  our 
Sidereal  System  has  a  limit  somewhere  beyond  the  outer- 
most stars,  then  it  is  inferrable  that  motion  is  not  lost  by 
radiation  beyond  this  limit ;  and  if  ^o,  the  original  degree 
of  difi'usion  may  be  resumed.  Or  supposing  the  ethereal 
medium  to  have  no  such  limit,  yet,  on  the  hypothesis  of  an 
unlimited  space,  containing,  at  certain  intervals.  Sidereal 
Systems  like  our  own,  it  may  be  that  the  quantity  of  mole- 
cular motion  radiated  into  the  region  occupied  by  our 
Sidereal  System,  is  equal  to  that  which  our  Sidereal 
System  radiates;  in  which  case  the  quantity  of  motion 
possessed  by  it,  remaining  undiminished,  it  may  continue 
during  unlimited  time  its  alternate  concentrations  and  dif- 
fusions.    But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  throughout  boundless 


^'^Q  DISSOLUTION. 

Bpace  filled  with  ether,  tliere  exist  no  otlicr  Sidereal  Sys- 
tems subject  to  like  clianges,  or  if  such  other  Sidereal 
Systems  exist  at  more  than  a  certain  average  distance  from 
one  another ;  then  it  seems  an  unavoidable  conclusion  that 
the  quantity  of  motion  possessed,  must  diminish  by  radia- 
tion; and  that  so,  on  each  successive  resumption  of  the 
nebulous  form,  the  matter  of  our  Sidereal  System  will 
occupy  a  less  space ;  until  it  reaches  either  a  state  in  which 
its  concentrations  and  diffusions  aro  relatively  small,  or  a 
state  of  complete  aggregation  and  rest.  Since,  however, 
we  have  no- evidence  showing  the  existence  or  non-existenco 
of  Sidereal  Systems  throughout  remote  space;  and  since, 
even  had  we  such  evidence,  a  legitimate  conclusion  could 
not  be  drawn  from  premises  of  which  one  element  (un- 
limited space)  is  inconceivable ;  we  must  be  for  ever  without 
answer  to  this  transcendent  question. 

But  confining  ourselves  to  the  proximate  and  not  neces- 
sarily insoluble  question,  we  find  reason  for  thinking  that 
after  tho  completion  of  those  various  equilibrations  which 
bring  to  a  close  all  the  forms  of  Evolution  we  have  contem- 
plated, there  must  continue  an  equilibration  of  a  far  wider 
kind.  "When  that  integration  everywhere  in  progress 
throughout  our  Solar  System  has  reached  its  climax,  there 
will  remain  to  be  effected  the  immeasureably  greater  inte- 
gration of  our  Solar  System,  with  other  such  systems. 
There  must  then  re-appear  in  molecular  motion  what  is  lost 
in  the  motion  of  masses ;  and  the  inevitable  transformation 
of  this  motion  of  masses  into  molecular  motion,  cannot  take 
place  without  reducing  tho  masses  to  a  nebulous  form, 

§  183.  Thus  wo  are  led  to  tho  conclusion  that  tho 
entire  process  of  things,  as  displayed  in  tho  aggregate  of 
the  visible  Universe,  is  analogous  to  the  entire  process  of 
things  as  displayed  in  tho  smallest  aggregates. 

Motion  as  well  as  Matter  being  fixed  in  quantity,  it  would 
seem  that  the  change  in  tho  distribution  of  Matter  which 


DISSOLUTION.  637 

Motion  effects^  coming  to  a  limit  in  wliicliever  direction  it 
is  carried^  tlie  indestructible  Motion  thereupon  necessitates 
a  reverse  distribution.  Apparently,  tbe  universally-co- 
existent forces  of  attraction  and  repulsion,  wldcli,  as  we 
Lave  seen,  necessitate  rbytlim  in  aU  minor  cbanges  tlirougli- 
out  tlie  Universe,  also  necessitate  rbytlun  in  tlie  totality  of 
its  cbanges — produce  now  an  immeasureable  period  during 
whicb.  tbe  attre^ctive  forces  predominating,  cause  universal 
concentration,  and  tben  an  immeasureable  period  during 
which  the  repulsive  forces  predominating,  cause  universal 
diffusion — alternate  eras  of  Evolution  and  Dissolution.  And 
thus  there  is  suggested  the  conception  of  a  past  during 
which  there  have  been  successive  Evolutions  analogous  to 
that  which  is  now  going  on  j  and  a  future  during  which 
successive  other  such  Evolutions  may  go  on — ever  the  same 
in  principle  but  never  the  same  in  concrete  result- 


CnAPTER  XXIV. 

SUMMARY    AND     CONCLUSION. 

§  184.  At  tlie  close  of  a  work  like  tkis,  it  is  more  than 
usually  needful  to  contemplate  as  a  whole  tliat  wkick  tke 
successive  chapters  kave  presented  in  parts.  A  cokerent 
knowledge  implies  sometking  more  tlian  tke  estakkskmcnt 
of  connexions ;  we  mnst  not  rest  after  seeing  kow  eack 
minor  group  of  trutks  falls  into  its  place  witkin  some  major 
group^  and  kow  all  tke  major  groups  fit  togetker.  It  is 
requisite  tkat  we  skould  retire  a  space,  and,  looking  at  tko 
entire  structure  from  a  distance  at  wkick  details  are  lost  to 
view,  observe  its  general  ckaracter. 

Sometking  more  tkan  recapitulation — sometking  more 
even  tkan  an  organized  re-statement,  will  come  witkin  tke 
scope  of  tke  ckapter.  We  skall  find  tkat  in  tkeir  ensemble 
tke  general  trutks  reacked  exhibit,  under  certain  aspects,  a 
oneness  not  kitkerto  observed. 

Tkere  is,  too,  a  special  reason  for  noting  kow  tke  various 
divisions  and  sub-divisions  of  tke  argument  consolidate; 
namely,  tkat  tke  tkeory  at  large  tkeroby  obtains  a  final 
illustration.  Tke  reduction  of  tke  generalizations  tkat  liave 
been  set  fortk  to  a  completely  integrated  state,  exemplifies 
once  more  tke  process  of  Evolution,  and  strengtkens  still 
furtker  tke  general  fabric  of  conclusions. 

§  185.  Hero,  indeed,  we  find  ourselves  brougkt  round 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION.  539 

nnexpectedly,  and  very  significantly,  to  the  tnitli  with,  wliicli 
we  set  outj  and  with  which  our  re-survey  must  commence. 
For  this  integrated  form  of  knowledge  is  the  form  which, 
apart  from  the  doctrine  of  Evolution,  we  decided  to  be  the 
highest  form. 

^Vhen  we  inquired  what  constitutes  Philosophy — ^whcn 
we  compared  men's  various  conceptions  of  Philosophy,  so 
that,  ehminating  the  elements  in  which  they  difiered  we 
might  see  in  what  they  agreed ;  we  found  in  them  all,  the 
tacit  implication  that  Philosophy  is  completely  unified  know- 
ledge. Apart  from  each  particular  scheme  of  unified  know- 
ledge, and  apart  from  the  proposed  methods  by  which 
unification  is  to  be  effeoted,  we  traced  in  every  case  the  belief 
that  unification  is  possible,  and  that  the  end  of  Philosophy 
is  the  achievement  of  it. 

Accepting  this  conclusion,  we  went  on  to  consider  the 
data  with  which  Philosophy  must  set  out.  Fundamental 
propositions,  or  propositions  not  deducible  from  deeper 
ones,  can  be  established  only  by  showing  the  complete 
congruity  of  all  the  results  reached  through  the  assumption 
of  them;  and,  premising  that  they  were  assumed  till  so 
established,  we  took  as  our  data,  those  organized  com- 
ponents of  our  intelligence  without  which  there  cannot 
go  on  the  mental  processes  implied  by  philosophizing. 

From  the  specification  of  these  we  passed  to  certain 
primary  truths — "  The  Indestruct  ibihty  of  Matter,"  ^'  The 
Continuity  of  Motion,''  and  ^^  The  Persistence  of  Force ; " 
of  which  the  last  is  ultimate  and  the  others  derivative. 
Having  previously  seen  that  our  experiences  of  Matter  and 
Motion  are  resolvable  into  experiences  of  Force ;  we  further 
Baw  the  truths  that  Matter  and  Motion  are  unchangeable  in 
quantity,  to  be  implications  of  the  truth  that  Force  is  un- 
changeable in  quantity.  This  we  discovered  is  the  truth 
by  derivation  from  which  all  other  truths  are  to  be  proved. 

The  first  of  the  truths  which  presented  itself  to  be  so 
proved,   was   "The   Persistence   of  the    Relations   among 


540  SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION. 

Forces."  Thisj  wMcli  is  ordinarily  called  Uniformity  of 
Law^  we  found  to  be  a  necessary  implication  of  the  fact  tliat 
Force  can  neither  arise  out  of  nothing  nor  lapse  into 
nothing. 

The  deduction  next  drawn,  was  that  forces  which  seem  to 
be  lost  are  transformed  into  their  equivalents  of  other  forces  ; 
or,  conversely,  that  forces  which  become  manifest,  do  so  by 
disappearance  of  pre-existing  equivalent  forces.  Of  these 
truths  we  found  illustrations  in  the  motions  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  in  the  changes  going  on  over  the  Earth's  surface, 
and  in  all  organic  and  super-organic  actions. 

It  turned  out  to  be  the  same  with  the  law  that  everything 
moves  along  the  line  of  least  resistence,  or  the  line  of 
greatest  traction,  or  their  resultant.  Among  movements  of 
all  orders,  from  those  of  stars  down  to  those  of  nervous  dis- 
charges and  commercial  currents,  it  was  shown  both  that 
this  is  so,  and  that,  given  the  Persistence  of  Force,  it  must 
be  so. 

So,  too,  we  saw  it  to  be  with  ^'  The  Rhythm  of  Motion." 
All  motion  alternates — ^be  it  the  motion  of  planets  in  their 
orbits  or  ethereal  molecules  in  their  undulations — ^be  it  the 
cadences  of  speech  or  the  rises  and  falls  of  prices ;  and,  as 
before,  it  became  manifest  that  Force  being  persistent,  this 
perpetual  reversal  of  Motion  between  limits  is  inevitable. 

§  186.  These  truths  holding  of  all  existences,  were 
recognized  as  of  the  kind  required  to  constitute  what  we 
distinguished  as  Philosophy.  But,  on  considering  them,  we 
perceived  that  as  they  stand  they  do  not  form  anything  like 
a  Philosophy ;  and  that  a  Philosophy  cannot  be  formed  by 
any  number  of  such  truths  separately  known.  Each  such 
truth  expresses  the  general  law  of  some  one  factor  by  which 
phenomena,  as  we  habitually  experience  them,  are  pro- 
duced; or,  at  most,  expresses  the  law  of  co-operation  of 
some  two  factors.  But  knowing  what  are  the  elements  of  a 
process,  is  not  knowing  how  these  elements  combine  to 


8UMMAET  AND   CONCLUSION.  .       641 

effect  it.  That  wMcli  alone  can  unify  knowledge  must  be 
the  law  of  co-operation  of  all  the  factors — a  law  expressing 
simultaneously  the  complex  antecedents  and  the  complex 
consequents  which  any  phenomenon  as  a  whole  presents. 

A  further  inference  was  that  Philosophy,,  as  we  under- 
stand it,  must  not  unify  separate  concrete  phenomena  only ; 
and  must  not  stop  short  with  unifying  separate  classes  of 
concrete  phenomena;  but  must  unify  all  concrete  pheno- 
mena. If  the  law  of  operation  of  each  factor  holds  true 
throughout  the  Cosmos ;  so,  too,  must  the  law  of  their  co- 
operation. And  hence  in  comprehending  the  Cosmos  as 
conforming  to  this  law  of  co-operation,  muse  consist  that' 
highest  unification  which  Philosophy  seeks. 

Descending  from  this  abstract  statement  to  a  concrete 
one,  we  saw  that  the  law  sought  must  be  the  law  of  the 
continuous  re-distribution  of  Matter  and  Motion.  The 
changes  everywhere  going  on,  from  those  which  are  slowly 
altering  the  structure  of  our  galaxy  down  to  those  which 
constitute  a  chemical  decomposition,  are  changes  in  the 
Fclative  positions  of  component  parts;  and  everywhere 
necessarily  imply  that  along  with  a  new  arrangement  of 
Matter  there  has  arisen  a  new  arrangement  of  Motion. 
Hence  we  may  be  certain,  a  jpriori,  that  there  must  be  a 
law  of  the  concomitant  re-distribution  of  Matter  and 
Motion,  which  holds  of  every  change  ;  and  which,  by  thus 
unifying  all  changes,  must  be  the  basis  of  a  Philosophy. 

In  commencing  our  search  for  this  universal  law  of  re- 
distribution, we  contemplated  from  another  point  of  view 
the  problem  of  Philosophy ;  and  saw  that  its  solution  could 
not  but  be  of  the  nature  indicated.  It  was  shown  that  a 
Philosophy  stands  self-convicted  of  inadequacy,  if  it  does 
not  formulate  the  whole  series  of  changes  passed  through 
by  every  existence  in  its  passage  from  the  imperceptible  to 
the  perceptible  and  again  from  the  perceptible  to  the  im- 
perceptible. If  it  begins  its  explanations  with  existences 
that  already  have  concrete  forms,  or  leaves  off  vrhile  they. 


542  BUMMAEY  AND   CONCLUSION. 

still  retain  concrete  forms  ;  tlien,  manifestly,  they  tad  pre- 
ceding liistories,  or  will  liave  succeeding  liistories,  or  both, 
of  which  no  account  is  given.  And  as  such  preceding  and 
succeeding  histories  are  subjects  of  possible  knowledge,  a 
Philosophy  which  says  nothing  about  them,  falls  short  of  the 
required  unification.  Whence  we  saw  it  to  follow  that 
the  formula  sought,  equally  applicable  to  existences  taken 
singly  and  in  their  totality,  must  be  applicable  to  the  whole 
history  of  each  and  to  the  whole  history  of  all. 

By  these  considerations  we  were  brought  within  view 
of  the  formula.  For  if  it  had  to  comprehend  the  entii-e 
progress  from  the  imperceptible  to  the  perceptible  and 
from  the  perceptible  to  the  imperceptible ;  and  if  it  was 
also  to  express  the  continuous  re-distribution  of  Matter 
and  Motion ;  then,  obviously,  it  could  be  no  other  than  one 
defining  the  opposite  processes  of  concentration  and  difi'usion 
in  terms  of  Matter  and  Motion.  And  if  so,  it  must  be  a 
statement  of  the  truth  that  the  concentration  of  Matter 
implies  the  dissipation  of  Motion,  and  that,  conversely,  the 
absorption  of  Motion  implies  the  difiusion  of  Matter. 

Such,  in  fact,  we  found  to  be  the  law  of  the  entire  cycle  of 
changes  passed  through  by  every  existence — ^loss  of  motion 
and  consequent  integration,  eventually  followed  by  gain  of 
motion  and  consequent  disintegration.  And  we  saw  that 
besides  applying  to  the  whole  history  of  each  existence,  it 
applies  to  each  detail  of  the  history.  Both  processes  are 
going  on  at  every  instant ;  but  always  there  is  a  difierential 
result  in  favour  of  the  first  or  the  second.  And  every 
change,  even  though  it  be  only  a  transposition  of  parts, 
inevitably  advances  the  one  process  or  the  other. 

Evolution  and  Dissolution,  as  we  name  these  opposite 
transformations,  though  thus  truly  defined  in  their  most 
general  characters,  are  but  incompletely  defined ;  or  rather, 
while  the  definition  of  Dissolution  is  sufficient,  the  definition 
of  Evolution  is  extremely  insufficient.  Evolution  is  always 
an  integration  of  Matter  and  dissipation  of  Motion ;  but  it 


6UMMAET  AND   CONCLUSION.  643 

is  in  most  cases  miicli  more  tHan  this.  The  primary  re- 
distribution of  Matter  and  Motion  is  usually  accompanied 
by  secondary  re-distributions. 

Distinguishing  the  different  kinds  of  Evolution  so  pro- 
duced as  simple  and  compound,  we  went  on  to  consider 
under  what  conditions  the  secondary  re-distributions  which 
make  Evolution  compound,  take  place.  We  found  that  a 
concentrating  aggregate  which  loses  its  contained  motion 
rapidly,  or  integrates  quickly,  exhibits  only  simple  Evolu- 
tion ;  but  in  proportion  as  its  largeness,  or  the  peculiar  con- 
stitution of  its  components,  hinders  the  dissipation  of  its 
motion,  its  parts,  while  undergoing  that  primary  re-distribu- 
tion which  results  in  integration,  undergo  secondary  re- 
distributions producing  more  or  less  complexity. 

§  187.  From  this  conception  of  Evolution  and  Dissolution 
as  together  making  up  the  entire  process  through  which 
things  pass;  and  from  this  conception  of  Evolution  as 
dividing  into  simple  and  compound ;  we  went  on  to  consider 
the  law  of  Evolution,  as  exhibited  among  all  orders  of 
existences,  in  general  and  in  detail. 

The  integration  of  Matter  and  concomitant  dissipation  of 
Motion,  was  traced  not  in  each  whole  only,  but  in  the  parts 
into  which  each  whole  divides.  By  the  aggregate  Solar 
System,  as  well  as  by  each  planet  and  satellite,  progressive 
concentration  has  been,  and  is  stiU  being,  exemphfied.  In 
each  organism  that  -general  incorporation  of  dispersed 
materials  which  causes  growth,  is  accompanied  by  local  in- 
corporations, forming  what  we  call  organs.  Every  society 
while  it  displays  the  aggregative  process  by  its  increasing 
mass  of  population,  displays  it  also  by  the  rise  of  dense 
masses  in  special  parts  of  its  area.  And  in  all  cases,  along 
with  these  direct  integrations  there  go  the  indirect  in- 
tegrations by  which  parts  are  made  mutually  dependent. 

From  this  primary  re«distribution  we  were  led  on  to 
consider  the  secondary  re-distributions^  by  inquiring  how 


544  SUMMAEY  AND  CONCLUSION. 

there  came  to  be  a  formation  of  parts  during  tlie  formation 
of  a  whole.  It  turned  out  tliat  there  is  habitually  a  passage 
from  homogeneity  to  heterogeneity^  along  with  the  passage 
from  diffusion  to  concentration.  "While  the  matter  com- 
posing the  Solar  system  has  been  assuming  a  denser  form,  it 
,  has  changed  from  unity  to  variety  of  distribution.  Sol- 
idification of  the  Earth  has  been  accompanied  by  a  progress 
from  comparative  uniformity  to  extreme  multiformity.  In 
the  course  of  its  advance  from  a  germ  to  a  mass  of  relatively 
great  bulk,  every  plant  and  animal  also  advances  from 
simplicity  to  complexity.  The  increase  of  a  society  in 
numbers  and  consolidation  has  for  its  concomitant  an  in- 
creased heterogeneity  both  of  its  political  and  its  industrial 
organization.  And  the  like  holds  of  all  super- organic  pro- 
ducts— Language,  Science,  Art,  and  Literature. 

But  we  saw  that  these  secondary  re-distributions  are  not 
thus  completely  expressed.  At  the  same  time  that  the  parts 
into  which  each  whole  is  resolved  become  more  unlike  one 
another,  they  also  become  more  sharply  marked  off.  The 
result  of  the  secondary  re-distributions  is  therefore  to  change 
an  indefinite  homogeneity  into  a  definite  heterogeneity. 
This  additional  trait  also  we  found  to  be  traceable  in  evolving 
aggregates  of  all  orders.  Further  consideration,  however,, 
made  it  apparent  that  the  increasing  definiteness  which  goes 
along  with  increasing  heterogeneity,  is  not  an  independent 
trait;  but  that  it  results  from  the  integration  which  pro- 
gresses in  each  of  the  differentiating  parts,  while  it  pro- 
grosses  in  the  whole  they  form. 

Further,  it  was  pointed  out  that  in  all  evolutions, 
inorganic,  organic,  and  super-organic,  this  change  in  the 
arrangement  of  Matter  is  accompanied  by  a  parallel  change 
in  the  arrangement  of  Motion :  every  increase  in  structural 
complexity  involving  a  corresponding  increase  in  func- 
tional complexity.  It  was  shown  that  along  with  the 
integration  of  molecules  into  masses,  there  arises  an  integra- 
tion of  molecular  motion  into  the  motion  of  masses ;  and 


SUMMAEY  AND  CONCLUSION.  545 

ttat  as  fast  as  tliere  results  variety  in  tlie  sizes  and  forms  of 
aggregates  and  tlieir  relations  to  incident  forces^  tliere  also 
results  variety  in  tlieir  movements. 

The  transformation  tlius  contemplated  under  separate 
aspects,  being  in  itself  but  one  transformation,  it  became 
needful  to  unite  these  separate  aspects  into  a  single  concep- 
tion— to  regard  the  primary  and  secondary  re-distributions 
as  simultaneously  working  their  various  effects.  Every- 
where the  change  from  a  confused  simplicity  to  a  distinct 
complexity,  in  the  distribution  of  both  matter  and  motion, 
is  incidental  to  the  consolidation  of  the  matter  and  the  loss 
of  its  motion.  Hence  the  re- distribution  of  the  matter  and 
of  its  retained  motion,  is  from  a  diffused,  uniform,  and  in- 
determinate arrangement,  to  a  concentrated,  multiform,  and 
determinate  arrangement, 

§  188.  We  come  now  to  one  of  the  additions  that  may  be 
made  to  the  general  argument  while  summing  it  up.  Here 
is  the  fit  occasion  for  observing  a  higher  degree  of  unity  in 
the  foregoing  inductions,  than  we  observed  while  making 
them. 

The  law  of  Evolution  has  been  thus  far  contemplated  as 
holding  true  of  each  order  of  existences,  considered  as  a 
separate  order.  But  the  induction  as  so  presented,  falls 
short  of  that  completeness  which  it  gains  when  we  con- 
template these  several  orders  of  existences  as  forming 
together  one  natural  whole.  While  we  think  of  Evolution 
as  divided  into  astronomic,  geologic,  biologic,  psychologic, 
sociologic,  &c.,  it  may  seem  to  a  certain  extent  a  coincidence 
that  the  same  law  of  metamorphosis  holds  throughout  all  its 
divisions.  But  when  we  recognize  these  divisions  as  mere 
conventional  groupings,  made  to  facilitate  the  arrangement 
and  acquisition  of  knowledge — when  we  regard  the  different 
existences  with  which  they  severally  deal  as  component 
parts  of  one  Cosmos;  we  see  at  once  that  there  are  not 
several  kinds  of  Evolution  having  certain  traits  in  common, 


516  SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIOH. 

but  one  Evolution  going  on  everywhere  after  the  same 
manner.  We  have  repeatedly  observed  that  while  any 
whole  is  evolving,  there  is  always  going  on  an  evolution  Oi" 
the  parts  into  which  it  divides  itself;  but  we  have  not 
observed  that  this  equally  holds  of  the  totality  of  things,  as 
made  up  of  parts  within  parts  from  the  greatest  down  to 
the  smallest.  We  know  that  while  a  physically-cohering 
aggregate  like  the  human  body  is  getting  larger  and  taking 
on  its  general  shape,  each  of  its  organs  is  doing  the  same ; 
that  while  each  organ  is  growing  and  becoming  unlike 
others,  there  is  going  on  a  differentiation  and  integration 
of  its  component  tissues  and  vessels;  and  that  even  the 
components  of  these  components  are  severally  increasing 
and  passing  into  more  definitely  heterogeneous  structures. 
But  we  have  not  duly  remarked  that,  setting  out  with  the 
human  body  as  a  minute  part,  and  ascending  from  it  to 
greater  parts,  this  simultaneity  of  transformation  is  equally 
manifest — that  while  each  individual  is  developing,  the 
society  of  which  he  is  an  insignificant  unit  is  developing 
too ;  that  while  the  aggregate  mass  forming  a  society  is 
becoming  more  definitely  heterogeneous,  so  likewise  is  that 
total  aggregate,  the  Earth,  of  which  the  society  is  an  in- 
appreciable portion ;  that  while  the  Earth,  which  in  bulk  is 
not  a  millionth  of  the  Solar  System,  progresses  towards  its 
concentrated  and  complex  structure,  the  Solar  System 
similarly  progresses;  and  that  even  its  transformations 
are  but  those  of  a  scarcely  appreciable  portion  of  our 
Sidereal  System,  which  has  at  the  same  time  been  going 
through  parallel  changes. 

So  understood.  Evolution  becomes  not  one  in  principle 
only,  but  one  in  fact.  There  are  not  many  metamorphoses 
similarly  carried  on ;  but  there  is  a  single  metamorphosis 
universally  progressing,  wherever  the  reverse  metamorphosis 
has  not  set  in.  In  any  locality,  great  or  small,  throughout 
space,  where  the  occupying  matter  acquires  an  appreciable 
individuality,  or  distinguishableness  from  other  matter,  there 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION.  647 

Evolution  goes  on ;  or  rather,  tlie  acquirement  of  this  ap- 
preciable individuality  is  the  commencement  of  Evolution. 
And  this  holds  uniformly;  regardless  of  the  size  of  the  aggre- 
gate, regardless  of  its  inclusion  in  other  aggregates,  and 
regardless  of  the  wider  evolutions  within  which  its  own  is 
comprehended. 

§  189.  After  making  them,  we  saw  that  the  inductions 
which,  taken  together,  establish  the  law  of  Evolution,  do 
not,  so  long  as  they  remained  inductions,  form  coherent 
parts  of  that  whole  rightly  named  Philosophy;  nor  does 
even  the  foregoing  passage  of  these  inductions  from  agree- 
ment into  identity,  suffice  to  produce  the  unity  sought. 
For,  as  was  pointed  out  at  the  time,  to  unify  the  truths 
thus  reached  with  other  truths,  it  is  requisite  to  deduce 
them  from  the  Persistence  of  Force.  Our  n^xt  step,  there- 
fore, was  to  show  why.  Force  being  persistent,  the  trans- 
formation which  Evolution  shows  us  necessarily  results. 

The  first  conclusion  arrived  at  was,  that  any  finite 
homogeneous  aggregate  must  inevitably  lose  its  homo- 
geneity, through  the  unequal  exposure  of  its  parts  to 
incident  forces.  It  was  pointed  out  that  the  production 
of  diversities  of  structure  by  diverse  forces,  and  forces 
acting  under  diverse  conditions,  has  been  illustrated  in 
astronomic  evoluti6n ;  and  that  a  like  connection  of  cause 
and  effect  is  seen  in  the  large  and  small  modifications 
undergone  by  our  globe.  The  early  changes  of  crganic 
germs  supplied  further  evidence  that  unlikenesses  of  struc- 
ture follow  unlikenesses  of  relations  to  surrounding  agencies 
— evidence  enforced  by  the  tendency  of  the  difierently- 
placed  members  of  each  species  to  diverge  into  varieties. 
And  we  found  that  the  contrasts,  political  and  industrial, 
which  arise  between  the  parts  of  societies,  serve  to  illus- 
trate the  same  principle.  The  instability  of  the  homo- 
geneous thus  everywhere  exemplified,  we  also  saw  holds 
in  each  of  the  distinguishable  parts  into  which  any  uniform 


548  SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION. 

whole  lapses ;  and  tliat  so  the  less  heterogeneous  tends  con- 
tinually to  become  more  heterogeneous. 

A  further  step  in  the  inquiry  disclosed  a  secondary  cause 
of  increasing  multiformity.  Every  differentiated  part  is 
not  simply  a  seat  of  further  differentiations^  but  also  a  parent 
of  further  differentiations;  since,  in  growing  unlike  other 
parts,  it  becomes  a  centre  of  unhke  reactions  on  incident 
forces,  and  by  so  adding  to  the  diversity  of  forces  at  work, 
adds  to  the  diversity  of  effects  produced.  This  multiplica- 
tion of  effects  proved  to  be  similarly  traceable  throughout 
all  Nature— in  the  actions  and  reactions  that  go  on  through- 
out the  Solar  System,  in  the  never-ceasing  geologic  com- 
plications, in  the  involved  symptoms  produced  in  organisms 
by  disturbing  influences,  in  the  many  thoughts  and  feelings 
generated  by  single  impressions,  and  in  the  ever-ramifying 
results  of  each  new  agency  brought  to  bear  on  a  society. 
To  which  was  added  the  corollary,  confirmed  by  abundant 
facts,  that  the  "multiplication  of  effects  advances  in  a 
geometrical  progression  along  with  advancing  heterogeneity. 

Completely  to  interpret  the  structural  changes  constitut- 
ing Evolution,  there  remained  to  assign  a  reason  for  that 
increasingly-distinct  demarcation  of  parts,  which  accom- 
panies the  production  of  differences  among  parts.  This 
reason  we  discovered  to  be,  the  segregation  of  mixed  units 
under  the  action  of  forces  capable  of  moving  them.  Wo 
saw  that  when  unlike  incident  forces  have  made  the  parts 
of  an  aggregate  unlike  in  the  natures  of  their  component 
units,  there  necessarily  arises  a  tendency  to  separation  of 
the  dissimilar  units  from  one  another,  and  to  a  clustering  of 
those  units  which  are  similar.  This  cause  of  the  local  inte- 
grations that  accompany  local  differentiations,  turned  out  to 
be  likewise  exemplified  by  all  kinds  of  Evolution — ^by  the 
formation  of  celestial  bodies,  by  the  moulding  of  the  Earth's 
crust,  by  organic  modifications,  by  the  establishment  of 
mental  distinctions,  by  the  genesis  of  social  divisions. 

At  length,  to  the  auery  whether  these  processes  have  any 


SITMMAEY  AND   CONCLUSION.  649 

limit,  there  came  tlie  answer  that  they  must  end  in  equili- 
brium. That  continual  division  and  subdivision  of  forces^ 
which  changes  the  uniform  into  the  multiform  and  the 
multiform  into  the  more  multiform,,  is  a  process  by  which 
forces  are  perpetually  dissipated ;  and  dissipation  of  them, 
continuing  as  long  as  there  remain  any  forces  unbalanced  by 
opposing  forces,  must  end  in  rest.  It  was  shown  that 
when,  as  happens  in  aggregates  of  various  orders,  many 
movements  are  going  on  together,  the  earlier  dispersion 
of  the  smaller  and  more  resisted  movements,  estabHshes 
moving  equilibria  of  different  kinds :  forming  transitional 
stages  on  the  way  to  complete  equilibrium.  And  further 
inquiry  made  it  apparent  that  for  the  same  reason,  these 
moving  equilibria  have  certain  self- conserving  powers; 
shown  in  the  neutralization  of  perturbations,  and  the  adjust- 
ment to  new  conditions.  This  general  principle  of  equili- 
bration, like  the  preceding  general  principles,  was  traced 
throughout  all  forms  of  Evolution — astronomic,  geologic, 
biologic,  mental  and  social.  And  our  concluding  inference 
was,  that  the  penultimate  stage  of  equilibration,  in  which  the 
extremest  multiformity  and  most  complex  moving  equili- 
brium are  established,  must  be  one  implying  the  highest  con- 
ceivable state  of  humanity. 

But  the  fact  which  it  here  chiefly  concerns  us  to  remember, 
is  that  each  of  these  laws  of  the  re-distribution  of  Matter 
and  Motion,  was  found  to  be  a  derivative  law — a  law  de- 
ducible  from  the  fundamental  law.  The  Persistence  of 
Force  being  granted,  there  follow  as  inevitable  inferences 
"  The  Instability  of  the  Homogeneous-'^  and  '*  The  Multiplica- 
tion of  Effects ;''  while  '^Segregation"  and  '^ Equilibration" 
also  become  corollaries.  And  thus  discovering  that  the 
processes  of  change  formulated  under  these  titles  are  so 
many  different-  aspects  of  one  transformation,  determined 
by  an  ultimate  necessity,  we  arrive  at  a  complete  unification 
of  them — a  synthesis  in  which  Evolution  in  general  and  in 
detail  becomes  known  as  an  implication  of  the  law  that 


550  SUMMAET  AND  CONCLUSION. 

fcranscends  proof.  Moreover^  in  becoming  thus  unified  witli 
one  another,  tlie  complex  truths  of  Evolution  become  simul- 
taneously unified  with  those  simpler  truths  shown  to  have  a 
like  afiiliation — the  equivalence  of  transformed  forces,  the 
movement  of  every  mass  and  molecule  along  its  line  of  least 
resistance,  and  the  limitation  of  its  motion  by  rhythm. 
Which  further  unification  brings  us  to  a  conception  of 
the  entire  plexus  of  changes  presented  by  each  concrete 
phenomenon,  and  by  the  aggregate  of  concrete  phenomena, 
as  a  manifestation  of  one  fundamental  fact — a  fact  shown 
alike  in  the  total  change  and  in  all  the  separate  changes 
composing  it. 

§  190.  Finally  we  turned  to  contemplate,  as  exhibited 
throughout  Nature,  that  process  of  Dissolution  which  forms 
the  complement  of  Evolution ;  and  which  inevitably,  at 
some  time  or  other,  undoes  what  Evolution  has  done. 

Quickly  following  the  arrest  of  Evolution  in  aggregates 
that  are  unstable,  and  following  it  at  periods  often  long 
delayed  but  reached  at  last  in  the  stable  aggregates  around 
us,  we  saw  that  even  to  the  vast  aggregate  of  which  all 
these  are  parts — even  to  the  Earth  as  a  whole — ^Dissolution 
must  eventually  arrive.  ISTay  we  even  saw  grounds  for  the 
belief  that  the  far  vaster  masses  dispersed  at  almost  im- 
measurable intervals  through  space,  will,  at  a  time  beyond 
the  reach  of  finite  imaginations,  share  the  same  fate ;  and 
that  so  universal  Evolution  will  be  followed  by  universal 
Dissolution — a  conclusion  which,  like  those  preceding  it, 
we  saw  to  be  deducible  from  the  Persistence  of  Force. 

It  may  be  added  that  in  so  unifying  the  phenomena  of 
Dissolution  with  those  of  Evolution,  as  being  manifestations 
of  the  same  ultimate  law  under  opposite  conditions,  we  also 
unify  the  phenomena  presented  by  the  existing  Universe 
with  the  like  phenomena  that  have  preceded  them  and  will 
succeed  them — so  far,  at  least,  as  such  unification  is  possible 
to  our  limited  intelligences.     For  if,  as  we  saw  reason  to 


SUlIilAET  AND  CONCLUSIOX.  551 

tliink,  tliere  is  an  alternation  of  Evolution  and  Dissolution 
in  the  totality  of  things — if,  as  we  are  obliged  to  infer  from 
the  Persistence  of  Force,  the  arrival  at  either  limit  of  this 
vast  rhythm  brings  about  the  conditions  under  which  a 
counter-movement  commences — if  we  are  hence  compelled 
to  entertain  the  conception  of  Evolutions  that  have  filled 
an  immeasurable  past  and  Evolutions  that  will  fill  an  im- 
measurable future;  we  can  no  longer  contemplate  the 
visible  creation  as  having  a  definite  beginning  or  end,  or 
as  being  isolated.  It  becomes  unified  with  all  existence 
before  and  after ;  and  the  Force  which  the  Universe  pre- 
sents, falls  into  the  same  category  with  its  Space  and  Time^ 
as  admitting  of  no  limitation  in  thought. 

§  191.  So  rounding  off  the  argument,  we  find  its  result 
brought  into  complete  coalescence  with  the  conclusion 
reached  in  Part  I. ;  where,  independently  of  any  inquiry  like 
the  foregoing,  we  dealt  with  the  relation  between  the 
Knowable  and  the  Unknowable. 

It  was  there  shown  by  analysis  of  both  our  religious  and 
our  scientific  ideas,  that  while  knowledge  of  the  cause  which 
produces  effects  on  our  consciousness  is  impossible,  the 
existence  of  a  cause  for  these  effects  is  a  datum  of  con- 
ficiousness.  We  saw  that  the  belief  in  a  Power  of  which 
no  limit  in  Time  or  Space  can  be  conceived,  is  that  funda- 
mental element  in  Eeligion  which  survives  all  its  changes 
of  form.  We  saw  that  all  Philosophies  avowedly  or  tacitly 
recognize  this  same  ultimate  truth : — that  while  the  Eela- 
tivist  rightly  repudiates  those  definite  assertions  which 
the  Absolutist  makes  respecting  existence  transcend- 
ing perception,  he  is  yet  at  last  compelled  to  unite  with 
him  in  predicating  existence  transcending  perception.  And 
this  inexpugnable  consciousness  in  which  Eeligion  and 
Philosophy  are  at  one  with  Common  Sense,  proved  to  be 
likewise  that  on  which  all  exact  Science  is  based.  We 
found  that  subjective  Science  can  give  no  account  of  those 


552  8UMMAEY  AKB  CONCLUSION. 

conditioned  modes  of  being  wliicli  constitute  consciousness; 
without  postulating  unconditioned  being.  And  wo  found 
lliat  objective  Science  can  give  no  account  of  tbe  world 
wliicli  we  know  as  external,  without  regarding  its  changes 
of  form  as  manifestations  of  something  that  continues  con- 
stant under  all  forms.  This  is  also  the  implication  to  which 
we  are  now  led  back  by  our  completed  synthesis.  The 
recognition  of  a  persistent  Force,  ever  changing  its  mani- 
festations but  unchanged  in  quantity  throughout  all  past 
time  and  all  future  time,  is  that  which  we  find  alone  makes 
possible  each  concrete  interpretation,  and  at  last  unifies  all 
concrete  interpretations.  Not,  indeed,  that  this  coincidence 
adds  to  the  strength  of  the  argument  as  a  logical  structure. 
Our  synthesis  has  proceeded  by  taking  for  granted  at  every 
step  this  ultimate  truth;  and  the  ultimate  truth  cannot, 
therefore,  be  regarded  as  in  any  sense  an  outcome  of  the 
synthesis.  Nevertheless,  the  coincidence  yields  a  verifica- 
tion. For  when  treating  of  the  data  of  Philosophy,  it  was 
pointed  out  that  we  cannot  take  even  a  first  step  without 
making  assumptions ;  and  that  the  only  course  is  to  proceed 
with  them  as  provisional,  until  they  are  proved  true  by  the 
congruity  of  all  the  results  reached.  This  congruity  we 
here  see  to  be  perfect  and  all-embracing — ^holding  through- 
out that  entire  structure  of  definite  consciousness  of  rela- 
tions which  we  call  Knowledge,  and  harmonizing  with  it 
that  indefinite  consciousness  of  existence  transcending  re- 
lations which  forms  the  essence  of  Religion. 

§  192.  Towards  some  result  of  this  order,  inquiry,  scien- 
tific, metaphysical,  and  theological,  has  been,  and  still  ia^ 
manifestly  advancing.  The  coalescence  of  polytheistic 
conceptions  into  the  monotheistic  conception,  and  the 
reduction  of  the  monotheistic  conception  to  a  more  and 
more  general  form  in  which  personal  superintendence  be- 
comes merged  in  universal  immanence,  clearly  shows  this 
advance.     It  is  equally  shown  in  the  fading  away  of  old 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION.  553 

fchcories  about  '^essences/'  '^potentialities/'  '^ occult  vir- 
tues/' &c.;  in  tlie  abandonment  of  such,  doctrines  as  tboso 
of  "  Platonic  Ideas/'  "  Pre-establisbed  Harmonies/'  and  the 
like ;  and  in  the  tendency  towards  tbe  identification  ot 
Being  as  present  to  us  in  consciousness,  witb.  Being  as 
otherwise  conditioned  beyond  consciousness.  Still  more 
conspicuous  is  it  in  the  progress  of  Science ;  wbicb,  from 
tbe  beginning  bas  been  grouping  isolated  facts  under  laws, 
uniting  special  laws  under  more  general  laws,  and  so  reach- 
ing on  to  laws  of  bigber  and  bigber  generality;  until  tbe 
conception  of  universal  laws  bas  become  familiar  to  it. 

Unification  being  tbus  tbe  cbaracteristic  of  developing 
tbougbt  of  all  kinds,  and  eventual  arrival  at  unity  being 
fairly  inferable,  tbere  arises  yet  a  furtber  support  to  our 
conclusion.  Since,  unless  tbere  is  some  otber  and  bigber 
unity,  tbe  unity  we  bave  reacbed  must  be  tbat  towards  wbicb 
developing  tbougbt  tends ;  and  tbat  tbere  is  any  otber  and 
bigber  unity  is  scarcely  supposable.  Having  grouped  tbe 
cbanges  wbicb  all  orders  of  existences  display  into  induc- 
tions; baving  merged  tbese  inductions  into  a  single 
induction;  baving  interpreted  tbis  induction  deductively; 
baving  seen  tbat  tbe  ultimate  trutb  from  wbicb  it  is  deduced 
is  one  transcending  proof;  it  seems,  to  say  tbe  least,  v^ry 
improbable  tbat  tbere  can  be  establisbed  a  fundamentally 
difierent  way  of  unifying  tbat  entire  process  of  tbing 
wbicb  Pbilosopby  bas  to  interpret.  Tbat  tbe  foregoing 
accumulated  verifications  are  all  illusive,  or  tbat  an  opposing 
doctrine  can  sbow  a  greater  accumulation  of  verifications,  is 
not  easy  to  conceive. 

Let  no  one  suppose  tbat  any  sucb  implied  degree  of 
trustwortbiness  is  alleged  of  tbe  various  minor  propositions 
brougbt  in  illustration  of  tbe  general  argument.  Sucb  an 
assumption  would  be  so  manifestly  absurd,  tbat  it  seen.'^ 
scarcely  needful  to  disclaim  it.  But  tbe  trutb  of  tbe  doctrine 
as  a  wbole,  is  unafiected  by  errors  in  tbe  details  of  its  pre- 
sentation. If  it  can  be  sbown  tbat  tbe  Persistence  of  Force 
25 


554  SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION. 

is  not  a  datum  of  consciousness;  or  if  it  can  be  sliown 
that  tte  several  laws  of  force  above  specified  are  not  corol- 
laries from  it ;  or  if  it  can  be  sliown  that,,  given  these  laws, 
tlie  re-distribution  of  Matter  and  Motion  docs  not  neces- 
sarily proceed  as  described ;  then,  indeed,  it  will  be  shown 
that  the  theory  of  Evolution  has  not  the  high  warrant  here 
claimed  for  it.  But  nothing  short  of  this  can  shake  the 
general  conclusions  arrived  at. 

§  193.  If  these  conclusions  be  accepted — if  it  be  agreed 
that  the  phenomena  going  on  everywhere  are  parts  of  the 
general  process  of  Evolution,  save  where  they  are  parts  of 
the  reverse  process  of  Dissolution ;  then  we  may  infer  that 
all  phenomena  receive  their  complete  interpretation,  only 
when  recognized  as  parts  of  these  processes.  Whence  it 
follows  that  the  limit  towards  which  Knowledge  is  advanc- 
ing, must  be  reached  when  the  formulae  of  these  processes 
are  so  applied  as  to  yield  a  total  and  specific  interpretation 
of  each  phenomenon  in  its  entirety,  as  well  as  of  phenomena 
in  general. 

The  partially-unified  knowledge  distinguished  as  Science, 
does  not  yet  include  such  total  interpretations.  Either, 
as  in  the  more  complex  sciences,  the  progress  is  almost  ex- 
clusively inductive ;  or,  as  in  the  simpler  sciences,  the  de- 
ductions are  concerned  with  the  component  phenomena ; 
and  at  present  there  is  scarcely  a  consciousness  that  the 
ultimate  task  is  the  deductive  interpretation  of  phenomena 
in  their  state  of  composition.  The  Abstract  Sciences,  deal- 
ing with  the  forms  under  which  phenomena  are  presented, 
and  the  Abstract-Concrete  Sciences,  dealing  with  the  factors 
by  which  phenomena  are  produced,  are,  philosophically  con- 
sidered, the  handmaids  of  the  Concrete  Sciences,  which 
deal  with  the  produced  phenomena  as  existing  in  all  their 
natural  complexity.  The  laws  of  the  forms  and  the  laws  of 
the  factors  having  been  ascertained,  there  then  comes  the 
business  of  ascertaining  the  laws  of  the  products,  as  deter- 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION.  655 

mined  by  the  inter-action  of  tlie  co-operative  factors.  Given 
the  Persistence  of  Force^  and  given  tlie  various  derivative 
laws  of  Force,,  and  there  has  to  be  shown  not  only  how 
the  actual  existences  of  the  inorganic  world  necessarily 
exhibit  the  traits  they  do,  but  how  there  necessarily  result 
the  more  numerous  and  involved  traits  exhibited  by  organic 
and  super-organic  existences — how  an  organism  is  evolved  ? 
what  is  the  genesis  of  human  intelligence  ?  whence  social 
progress  arises  ? 

It  is  evident  that  this  development  of  Knowledge 
into  an  organized  aggregate  of  direct  and  indirect  deduc- 
tions from  the  Persistence  of  Force,  can  be  achieved  only 
in  the  remote  future ;  and,  indeed,  cannot  be  completely 
achieved  even  then.  Scientific  progress  is  progress  in  that 
equilibration  of  thought  and  things  which  we  saw  is  going 
on,  and  must  continue  to  go  on ;  but  which  cannot  arrive 
at  perfection  in  any  finite  period.  Still,  though  Science  can 
never  be  entirely  reduced  to  this  form  ;  and  though  only  at 
a  far  distant  time  can  it  be  brought  nearly  to  this  form ; 
much  may  even  now  be  done  in  the  way  of  approximation. 

Of  course,  what  may  now  be  done,  can  be  done  but  very 
imperfectly  by  any  single  individual.  No  one  can  possess 
that  encyclopedic  information  required  for  rightly  organizing 
even  the  truths  already  established.  Nevertheless  as  pro- 
gress is  efiected  by  increments — as  all  organization,  begin- 
ning in  faint  and  blurred  outlines,  is  completed  by  successive 
modifications  and  additions ;  advantage  may  accrue  from  an 
attempt,  however  rude,  to  reduce  the  facts  now  accumulated 
— or  rather  certain  classes  of  them — to  something  like  co- 
ordination. Such  must  be  the  plea  for  the  several  volumes 
which  are  to  succeed  this;  dealing  with  the  respective 
divisions  of  what  we  distinguished  at  the  outset  as  Special 
Philosophy. 

§  194.  A  few  closing  words  must  be  said,  concerning  the 
general  bearings  of  the  doctrines  that  are  now  to  be  further 


656  SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION. 

developed.  Before  proceeding  to  interpret  tlio  detailed 
phenomena  of  Life^  and  Mind,  and  Society,  in  terms  of 
Matter,,  Motion,  and  Force,  tlie  reader  must  be  reminded  in 
wliat  sense  tlie  interpretations  are  to  be  accepted. 

It  is  true  that  their  purely  relative  character  has  been  re- 
peatedly insisted  upon;  but  the  liability  to  misinterpretation 
is  so  great,  that  notwithstanding  all  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
there  will  probably  have  arisen  in  not  a  few  minds,  the  con- 
viction that  the  solutions  which  have  been  given,  along  with 
those  to  be  derived  from  them,  are  essentially  materialistic. 
Having,  throughout  life,  constantly  heard  the  charge  of 
matsrialism  made  against  those  who  ascribed  the  more  in- 
volved phenomena  to  agencies  like  those  which  produce  tho 
simplest  phenomena,  most  persons  have  acquired  repugnance 
to  such  modes  of  interpretation ;  and  the  universal  appH- 
cation  of  them,  even  though  it  is  premised  that  the  solutions 
they  give  can  be  but  relative,  will  probably  rouse  more  or 
less  of  the  habitual  feeling.  Such  an  attitude  of  mind,  how- 
ever, is  significant,  not  so  much  of  a  reverence  for  the 
Unknown  Cause,  as  of  an  irreverence  for  those  familiar 
forms  in  which  the  Unknown  Cause  is  manifested  to  us. 
Men  who  have  not  risen  above  that  vulgar  conception  which 
unites  with  Matter  the  contemptuous  epithets  '^ gross*' 
and  '^  brute,**  may  naturally  feel  dismay  at  the  proposal  to 
reduce  the  phenomena  of  Life,  of  Mind,  and  of  Society,  to  a 
level  with  those  which  they  think  so  degraded.  But 
whoever  remembers  that  the  forms  of  existence  which  the 
uncultivated  speak  of  with  so  much  scorn,  are  shown  by 
the  man  of  science  to  be  the  more  marvellous  in  their 
attributes  the  more  they  are  investigated,  and  are  also 
proved  to  be  in  their  ultimate  natures  absolutely  incompre- 
hensible— as  absolutely  incomprehensible  as  sensation,  or 
the  conscious  something  which  perceives  it — ^whoever  clearly 
recognizes  this  truth,  will  see  that  the  course  proposed  docs 
not  imply  a  degradation  of  the  so-called  higher,  but  an 
elevation  of  tho  so-called  lower.     Perceiving  as  he  will,  that 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION.  O07 

thG  Materialist  and  Spiritualist  controversy  is  a  mere  war  of 
words,  in  wliicli  tlie  disputants  are  equally  absurd — each 
tliinking  lie  understands  that  which  it  is  impossible  for  any 
man  to  understand — ^he  will  perceive  how  utterly  groundless 
is  the  fear  referred  to.  Being  fully  convinced  that  whatever 
nomenclature  is  used,  the  ultimate  mystery  must  remain  tho 
same_,  he  will  be  as  ready  to  formulate  all  phenomena  in 
terms  of  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force,  as  in  any  other  terms  ; 
and  will  rather  indeed  anticipate,  that  only  in  a  doctrine 
which  recognizes  the  Unknown  Cause  as  co-extensive  with 
all  orders  of  phenomena,  can  there  be  a  consistent  Religion, 
or  a  consistent  Philosophy. 

Though  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  misrepresentations, 
especially  when  the  questions  involved  are  of  a  kind  that  ex- 
cite so  much  animus,  yet  to  guard  against  themas  far  as  maybe, 
it  will  be  well  to  make  a  succinct  and  emphatic  re-statement 
of  the  Philosophico-Religious  doctrine  which  pervades  tho 
foregoing  pages.  Over  and  over  again  it  has  been 

shown  in  various  ways,  that  the  deepest  truths  we  can 
reach,  are  simply  statements  of  the  widest  uniformities  in 
our  experience  of  the  relations  of  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force; 
and  that  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force  are  but  symbols  of  the 
Unknown  Eeality.  A  Power  of  which  the  nature  remains 
for  ever  inconceivable,  and  to  which  no  limits  in  Time  or 
Space  can  be  imagined,  works  in  us  certain  effects. 
These  effects  have  certain  likenesses  of  kind,  the  most 
'general  of  which  we  class  together  under  the  names  of 
Matter,  Motion,  and  Force ;  and  between  these  effects  there 
are  likenesses  of  connection,  the  most  constant  of  which  we 
class  as  laws  of  the  highest  certainty.  Analysis  reduces 
these  several  kinds  of  effect  to  one  kind  of  effect ;  and  these 
several  kinds  of  uniformity  to  one  kind  of  uniformity.  And 
the  highest  achievement  of  Science  is  the  interpretation  of 
all  orders  of  phenomena,  as  differently-conditioned  manifes- 
ta-tions  of  this  one  kind  of  effect,  under  differently-condi- 
tioned modes  of  this  one  kind  of  uniformity.     But  when 


558  SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION. 

Science  lias  done  tliis^  it  lias  done  nothing  more  than  sys- 
tematize our  experience;  and  lias  in  no  degree  extended 
the  limits  of  our  experience.  We  can  say  no  more  tlian  be- 
fore^  wlietlier  the  uniformities  are  as  absolutely  necessary, 
as  they  have  become  to  our  thought  relatively  necessary. 
The  utmost  possibility  for  us,  is  an  interpretation  of  the 
process  of  things  as  it  presents  itself  to  our  limited 
consciousness ;  but  how  this  process  is  related  to  the 
actual  process  we  are  unable  to  conceive,  much  less  to 
know.  Similarly,    it  must  be  remembered  that 

while  the  connection  between  the  phenomenal  order  and 
the  ontological  order  is  for  ever  inscrutable  ;  so  is  the  con- 
nection between  the  conditioned  forms  of  being  and  the 
unconditioned  form  of  being  for  ever  inscrutable.  The 
interpretation  of  all  phenomena  in  terms  of  Matter,  Motion, 
and  Force,  is  nothing  more  than  the  reduction  of  our  com- 
plex symbols  of  thought,  to  the  simplest  symbols;  and 
when  the  equation  has  been  brought  to  its  lowest  terms  the 
symbols  remain  symbols  still.  Hence  the  reasonings  con- 
tained in  the  foregoing  pages,  aiSbrd  no  support  to  either  of 
the  antagonist  hypotheses  respecting  the  ultimate  nature  of 
things.  Their  implications  are  no  more  materiahstic  than 
they  are  spiritualistic ;  and  no  more  spiritualistic  than  they 
are  materialistic.  Any  argument  which  is  apparently  fur- 
nished to  either  hypothesis,  is  neutralized  by  as  good  an 
argument  furnished  to  the  other.  The  Materialist,  seeing 
it  to  be  a  necessary  deduction  from  the  law  of  correlation,' 
that  what  exists  in  consciousness  under  the  form  of  feeling, 
is  transformable  into  an  equivalent  of  mechanical  motion, 
and  by  consequence  into  equivalents  of  all  the  other  forces 
which  matter  exhibits ;  may  consider  it  therefore  dcmou- 
etrated  that  the  phenomena  of  consciousness  are  material 
phenomena.  But  the  Spiritualist,  setting  out  with  tho 
Bame  data,  may  argue  with  equal  cogency,  that  if  the  forces 
displayed  by  matter  are  cognizable  only  under  the  shape  ol 
those  equivalent  amounts  of  consciousness  which  they  pro- 


6UMMAEY   AND    CONCLUSION.  559 

duce,  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  these  forces,  when  existing 
out  of  consciousness,  are  of  the  same  intrinsic  nature  as 
when  existing  in  consciousness  ;  and  that  so  is  justiJBed  thQ 
spiritualistic  conception  of  the  external  worlds  as  consisting 
of  something  essentially  identical  with  what  we  call  mind. 
Manifestly,  the  establishment  of  correlation  and  equivalence 
between  the  forces  of  the  outer  and  the  inner  worlds,  may 
be  used  to  assimilate  either  to  the  other;  according  as  wo 
set  out  with  one  or  other  term.  But  he  who  rightly  inter- 
prets the  doctrine  contained  in  this  work,  will  see  that 
licither  of  these  terms  can  be  taken  as  ultimate.  Ho  will 
see  that  though  the  relation  of  subject  and  object  renders 
necessary  to  us  these  antithetical  conceptions  of  Spirit  and 
Matter ;  the  one  is  no  less  than  the  other  to  be  regarded  as 
but  a  sign  of  the  Unknown  Reality  which  underlies  both. 


THE    EXDW 

4>.   G.  /S'Jf. 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS. 


Mr.  Spencer's  philosophical  series  is  published  by  D.  Appleton 
6  Co.,  Ne^  York,  in  quarterly  parts  (80  to  100  pages  each),  by 
subscription,  at  two  dollars  a  year.  "  First  Frinciples"  is  issued 
in  one  volume,  and  four  parts  of  Biology  have  appeared.  We 
subjoin  some  notices  of  his  philosophy  from  American  and  English 
reviews : 

From  the  Naiional  Quarterly  Eeview  (American). 
Comte  thus  founded  social  science,  and  opened  a  path  for  future  discoverers ; 
but  he  did  not  perceive,  any  more  than  previous  inquirers,  the  fundamental  law 
of  human  evolution.  It  was  reserved  for  Herbert  Spencer  to  discover  this  all- 
comprehensive  lawwhich  is  found  to  explain  alike  all  the  phenomena  of  man'a 
history  and  all  those  of  external  nature.  This  sublime  discovery,  that  the  uni- 
verse is  in  a  continuous  process  of  evolution  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  hete- 
rogeneous, with  which  only  Newton's  law  of  gravitation  is  at  all  worthy  to  be 
compared,  underlies  not  only  physics,  but  also  history.  It  reveals  the  law  to 
which  social  changes  conform. 

From  tlie  KJhristtan  Examiner. 
Reverent  and  bold — reverent  for  truth,  though  not  for  the  forms  of  truth,  aud 
not  for  much  that  we  hold  true — bold  in  the  destruction  of  error,  though  with- 
9ut  that  joy  in  destruction  which  often  claims  the  name  of  boldness; — these 
works  are  interesting  in  themselves  and  in  their  relation  to  the  current  thought 
of  the  time.  They  seem  at  first  sight  to  form  the  turning  point  in  the  positive 
philosophy,  but  closer  examination  shows  us  that  it  is  only  a  new  and  marked 
Btage  in  a  regular  growth.  It  is  the  positive  philosophy  reaching  the  higher 
relations  of  our  being,  and  establishing  what  before  it  ignored  because  it  had  not 
reached,  and  by  ignoring  seemed  to  deny.  This  system  formerly  excluded  the- 
ology and  psychology.  In  the  works  of  Herbert  Spencer  we  have  the  rudiments 
of  a  positive  theology  and  an  immense  step  toward  the  perfection  of  the  science 
of  psychology.  *  *  *  Such  is  a  brief  and  meagre  sketch  of  a  discussion 
which  we  would  commend  to  be  followed  in  detail  by  every  mind  interested  in 
Iheological  studies.  Herbert  Spencer  comes  in  good  faith  from  what  has  been 
10  long  a  hostile  camp,  bringing  a  flag  of  truce  and  presenting  terms  of  agree* 
neut  meant  to  be  honorable  to  both  parties :  let  us  give  him  a  candid  hearing 


562  OPDflONS   OF  THE  PEESS. 

»  ♦  *  In  conclusion,  we  would  remark  that  the  work  of  Herbert  Spencer  ra 
ferred  to  (First  Principles)  is  not  mainly  theological,  but  will  present  the  lates'. 
and  broadest  generalizations  of  science,  and  we  would  commend  to  our  readers 
this  author,  too  little  known  among  us,  as  at  once  one  of  the  clearest  of  teachers 
and  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  honorable  of  opponents. 

From  tJie  New  Englander. 

Though  we  find  here  some  unwarranted  assumptions,  as  well  as  some  grave 
omissions,  yet  this  part  (Laws  of  the  Knowable)  may  be  considered,  upon  the 
whole,  as  a  fine  specimen  of  scientific  reasoning.  Considerable  space  is  devoted 
to  the  "Law  of  Evolution,"  the  discovery  of  which  is  the  author's  chief  claim  to 
originality,  and  certainly  evinces  great  power  of  generalization.  To  quote  the 
abstract  definition  without  a  full  statement  of  the  inductions  from  which  it  ia 
derived  would  convey  no  fair  impression  of  the  breadth  and  strength  of  the 
thought  which  it  epitomizes.  Of  Mr.  Spencer's  general  characteristics  as  a  wri- 
ter, we  may  observe  that  his  style  is  marked  by  great  purity,  clearness,  and 
force;  though  it  is  somewhat  diffuse,  and  the  abstract  nature  of  some  of  his  top- 
ics occasionally  renders  his  thought  difficult  of  apprehension.  His  treatment  of 
his  subjects  is  generally  thorough  and  sometimes  exhaustive;  his  arguments  are 
always  ingenious  if  not  always  convincing ;  his  illustrations  are  drawn  from  al- 
most every  accessible  field  of  human  knowledge,  and  his  method  of  "putting 
things"  is  such  as  to  make  the  most  of  his  materials.  He  is  undoubtedly  enti- 
tled to  a  high  rank  among  the  speculative  and  philosophic  writers  of  the  present 
day.  *  *  » 
j  In  Mr.  Spencer  we  have  the  example  of  a  positivist,  who  does  not  treat  the 
subject  of  religion  with  supercilious  neglect,  and  who  illustrates  by  his  own 
method  of  reasoning  upon  the  highest  objects  of  human  thought,  the  value  of 
those  metaphysical  studies  which  it  is  so  much  the  fashion  of  his  school  to  de- 
cry. For  both  these  reasons  the  volume,  which  we  now  propose  to  examine, 
deserves  the  careful  attention  of  the  theologian  who  desires  to  know  what  one 
of  the  strongest  thinkers  of  his  school,  commonly  thought  atheistic  in  its  tenden- 
cies, can  say  in  behalf  of  our  ultimate  religious  ideas.  For  if  we  mistake  not,  in 
spite  of  the  very  negative  character  of  his  own  results,  he  has  furnished  some 
sirong  arguments  for  the  doctrine  of  a  positive  Christian  theology.  "We  shall  be 
mistaken  if  we  expect  to  find  him  carelessly  passing  these  matters  by  (religious 
faith  and  theological  science)  as  in  all  respects  beyond  knowledge  and  of  no 
practical  concern.  On  the  contrary,  he  gives  them  profound  attention,  and 
arrives  at  conclusions  in  regard  to  them  which  even  the  Christian  theologian 
must  allow  to  contain  a  large  measure  of  truth.  While  showing  the  unsearclcdbU 
nature  of  the  ultimate  facts  on  which  religion  depends,  he  demonstrates  theii 
rml  existence  and  their  great  importance.  *  *  *  In  answering  these  ques- 
tions Mr.  Spencer  has,  we  think,  arrived  nearer  to  a  true  philosophy  than  eithei 
Hamilton  or  Mansel.  At  least  he  has  indicated  in  a  more  satisfactory  mannei 
than  they  have  done,  the  positive  datum  of  consciousness  that  the  unconditioned, 
though  inscrutable,  exists.  It  may  be  said  that  Mr.  Spencer  is  not  chargeable 
with  excluding  God  from  the  universe,  or  denying  all  revelation  of  Him  in  His 
works,  since  he  earnestly  defends  the  truth  that  an  inscrutable  power  is  shown 
'to  ixist.  We  certainly  would  not  charge  him  with  theoretical  atheism,  holding 
as  he  does  this  ultimate  religious  idea. 


OPINIONS   OF  THE   PKESS.  5G3 

From  the  KoriJi  American  Eeview, 
The  law  of  organic  development  announced  in  the  early  part  of  the  i  resent 
century,  by  Goethe,  Schelling,  and  Von  Baer,  and  vaguely  expressed  in  the  for- 
mula, that  "evolution  is  always  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous,  and 
from  the  simple  to  the  complex,"  has  recently  been  extended  by  Herbert  Spencer 
BO  as  to  include  all  phenomena  whatsoever.  He  has  shown  that  this  law  of  evo- 
lution is  the  law  of  aU  evolution.  Whether  it  be  in  the  development  of  the  earth 
or  of  life  upon  its  surface,  in  the  development  of  Society,  of  government,  of  man- 
ufactures,  of  commerce,  of  language,  hterature,  science,  and  art,  this  same  ad- 
vance from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  through  successive  differentiations,  holds 
uniformly.  The  stupendous  induction  from  all  classes  of  phenomena  by  which  Mr. 
Spencer  proceeds  to  estabUsh  and  illustrate  his  theorem  cannot  be  given  here. 

From  the  Christian  Spectator  (English). 
Mr.  Spencer  claims  for  his  view  that  it  is  not  onJy  a  religious  position,  but 
preeminently  th^  religious  position ;  and  we  are  most  thoroughly  disposed  to 
agree  with  him,  though  we  think  he  does  not  appreciate  the  force  of  his  own 
argument,  nor  fully  understand  his  own  words.  For  let  us  now  attempt  to  real- 
ize the  meaning  of  this  fact,  of  which  Mr.  Spencer  and  his  compeers  have  put  ua 
in  possession ;  let  us  endeavour  to  see  whether  its  bearings  are  reaUy  favorable 
or  adverse  to  religion.  They  are  put  forward  indeed  avowedly  as  adverse  to  any 
other  religion  than  a  mere  reverential  acquiescence  in  ignorance  concerning  all 
that  truly  exists ;  but  it  appears  to  us  that  this  supposed  opposition  to  religion 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  doctrine  itself  is  so  profoundly,  so  intensely,  so 
overwhelmingly  religious,  nay,  so  utterly  and  entirely  Cheistian,  that  its  true 
meaning  could  not  be  seen  for  very  glory.  Like  Moses,  when  he  came  down 
from  the  Mount,  this  positive  philosophy  comes  with  a  veil  over  its  face,  that  its 
too  divine  radiance  may  be  hidden  for  a  time.  This  is  Science  that  has  been 
conversing  with  God,  and  brings  in  her  hand  His  law  written  on  tables  of  stone. 

From  the  Beader. 
To  answer  the  question  of  the  likelihood  of  the  permanence  of  Mr.  Mill's  phi- 
losophic reign,  *  *  *  we  should  have  to  take  account,  among  other  things, 
of  the  differences  fi-om  Mr.  Mill  already  shown  by  the  extraordinarily  able  and 
peculiarly  original  thinker  whose  name  we  have  associated  with  Mr.  Mill's  at  the 
head  of  this  article.  We  may  take  occasion,  at  another  time,  to  call  attention  to 
these  speculations  of  JVIr.  Herbert  Spencer,  whose  works  in  the  mean  time,  and 
especially  that  new  one  whose  title  we  have  cited,  we  recommend  to  all  those 
Belect  readers  whose  appreciation  of  masterly  exposition,  and  great  reach  and 
boldness  of  generaMzation,  does  not  depend  on  their  mere  disposition  to  agree 
with  the  doctrines  propounded. 

From  the  British  Quarterly  Beview. 
Complete  in  itself,  it  is  at  the  same  time  but  a  part  of  a  whole,  which,  if  it 
should  be  constructed  in  proportion,  will  be  ten  times  as  great.  For  these  First 
Principles  are  merely  the  foundation  of  a  system  of  philosophy,  bolder,  more 
elaborate  and  comprehensive,  perhaps,  than  any  other  which  has  been  hitherto 
designed  in  England.  *  *  *  Widely  as  it  will  be  seen  we  differ  from  the 
author  on  some  points,  we  very  sincerely  hope  he  may  succeed  in  accompUshinji 
ttie  bold  and  magnificent  project  he  has  mapped  out. 


564  oriNioNS  of  thepbess. 

From  ihe  CornMll  Magazine, 
Our  "Survey/*  superficial  as  it  is,  must  include  at  least  the  mention  of  a 
Ifork  so  lofty  in  aim,  and  so  remarkable  in  execution  as  the  system  of  Philosophy 
which  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  is  issuing  to  subscribers.  *  *  *  In  spite  of  all 
dissidence  respecting  the  conclusions,  the  serious  reader  will  applaud  the  pro* 
found  earnestness  and  thoroughness  with  which  these  conclusions  are  advo- 
cated ;  the  universal  scientific  knowledge  brought  to  bear  on  them  by  way  of 
illustration,  and  the  acute  and  subtle  thinking  displayed  in  every  chapter. 

From  the  FartTienon. 
By  these  books  he  has  wedged  his  way  into  fame  in  a  manner  distinctly  ori 
ginal,  and  curiously  marked.  *  *  *  There  is  a  peculiar  charm  in  this  au- 
thor's style,  in  that  it  sacrifices  to  no  common  taste,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
makes  the  most  abstruse  questions  intelligible.  *  *  *  The  book,  if  it  is  to 
be  noticed  with  the  slightest  degree  of  fairness,  requires  to  be  read  and  re-read, 
to  be  studied  apart  from  itself  and  with  itself.  For  whatever  may  be  its  ultimate 
fate — although  as  the  ages  go  on  it  shall  become  but  as  the  lispings  of  a  little 
child,  a  little  more  educated  than  other  lisping  children  of  the  same  time — thia 
is  certain,  that,  as  a  book  addressed  to  the  present,  it  lifts  the  mind  far  above 
the  ordinary  range  of  thought,  suggests  new  associations,  arranges  chaotic  pic- 
tures, strikes  often  a  broad  harmony,  and  even  moves  the  heart  by  an  intellco- 
tual  struggle  as  passionless  as  fate,  but  as  irresistible  as  time. 

From  tJie  Critic. 
Mr.  Spencer  is  the  foremost  mind  of  the  only  philosophical  school  in  England 
which  has  arrived  at  a  consistent  scheme.  *  *  *  Beyond  this  school  we  en- 
counter an  indolent  chaotic  eclecticism.  Mr.  Spencer  claims  the  respect  due  to 
distinct  and  daring  individuality ;  others  are  echoes  or  slaves.  Mr.  Spencer  may 
be  a  usurper,  but  he  has  the  voice  and  gesture  of  a  king. 

From  the  Medico- Chirurgical  Beview. 

Mr.  Spencer  is  equally  remarkable  for  his  search  after  first  principles ;  for  bis 

acute  attempts  to  decompose  mental  phenomena  into  their  primary  elements ; 

and  for  his  broad  generalizations  of  mental  activity,  viewed  in  connection  with 

nature,  instinct,  and  all  the  analogies  presented  by  life  in  its  universal  aspects. 

Translated  from  an  able  and  elaborate  article  in  the  H&vue  des  Deux  Mondea  of 
Fd),  15,  1864. 
— The  great  work  on  philosophy,  by  Herbert  Spencer,  whom  I  would  willinglj 
Btyle  the  last  of  English  metaphysicians.  In  the  midst  of  universal  indifference, 
Mr.  Spencer  remained  steadily  attached  to  his  philosophical  studies,  displaying 
all  that  heroic  courage  and  that  rare  independence  indispensable  to  those  who 
devote  themselves  to  toilsome  researches  which  at  best  only  recompense  the 
student  with  a  few  obscure  and  isolated  suffrages. 

If  Mr.  Spencer,  with  his  talent,  his  fertility  of  genius,  and  the  almost  encyclo 
pedic  variety  of  knowledge  of  which  his  writings  furnish  the  proof,  had  chosen 
to  follow  the  beaten  path,  nothing  would  have  been  more  easy  than  for  him  to 
secure  all  those  honors  of  which  English  society  is  so  prodigal  to  those  who  serve 
her  as  she  wishes  to  be  served.  He  preferred,  however,  with  a  noble  and  touch- 
mg  self-denial,  to  put  up  with  poverty — and  what  is  still  more  difficult,  with  ob 


OPINIOXS    OF   THE   PRESS.  565 

icurity.  But  he  deserves  more^than  vain  assurances  of  sympathy:  we  must  not 
merely  wdmire  his  fidelity  to  profitless  studies ;  his  work  itself  merits  the  indi- 
vidual avtention  of  all  friends  of  philosophy. 

An  impression  prevails  with  many  that  Mr.  Spencer  belongs 
to  the  positive  school  of  M.  Auguste  Comte.  This  is  an  entire 
misapprehension ;  but  the  position  having  been  assumed  by  sev- 
eral of  his  reviewers,  he  repels  the  charge  in  the  following  letter, 
which  appeared  in  the  New  Englander  for  January,  1864  : 

To  tlie  Editor  qf  the  New  Englander  : 

Sir  : — ^While  recognizing  the  appreciative  tone  and  general  candour  of  the 
article  in  your  last  number,  entitled  "Herbert  Spencer  on  Ultimate  Religioua 
Ideas,"  allow  me  to  point  out  one  error  which  pervades  it.  The  writer  correctly 
represents  the  leading  positions  of  my  argument,  but  he  inadvertently  conveys 
a  wrong  impression  respecting  my  tendencies  and  sympathies.  He  says  of  me, 
"the  spirit  of  his  philosophy  is  evidently  that  of  the  so-called  positive  method 
which  has  now  many  partial  disciples,  as  well  as  many  zealous  adherents  among 
the  thinkers  of  England."  Further  on  I  am  tacitly  classed  with  "the  English 
admirers  and  disciples  of  the  great  Positivist;"  and  it  is  presently  added  that 
"in  Mr.  Spencer  we  have  an  example  of  a  positivist,  who  does  not  treat  the  sub- 
ject of  religion  with  supercilious  neglect."  Here  and  throughout,  the  implica- 
tion is  that  I  am  a  follower  of  Comte.  This  is  a  mistake.  That  M.  Comte  has 
given  a  general  exposition  of  the  doctrine  and  method  elaborated  by  science, 
and  has  applied  to  it  a  name  which  has  obtained  a  certain  currency,  is  true. 
But  it  is  not  true  that  the  holders  of  this  doctrine  and  followers  of  this  method 
are  disciples  of  M.  Comte.  Neither  their  modes  of  inquiry  nor  their  views  con- 
cerning human  knowledge  in  its  nature  and  limits  are  appreciably  different  from 
what  they  were  before.  If  they  are  Positivists  it  is  in  the  sense  that  all  men  of 
science  have  been  more  or  less  consistently  Positivists ;  and  the  applicability  of 
M.  Comte' s  title  to  them  no  more  makes  them  his  disciples  than  does  its  appli- 
cability to  the  men  of  science  who  lived  and  died  before  M.  Comte  wrote,  make 
them  his  disciples. 

My  own  attitude  toward  M.  Comte  and  his  partial  adherents  has  been  all 
along  that  of  antagonism.  In  an  essay  on  the  "  Genesis  of  Science,"  published 
in  1854,  and  republished  with  other  essays  in  1857,  I  have  endeavoured  to  show 
that  his  theory  of  the  logical  dependence  and  historical  development  of  the 
sciences  is  untrue.  I  have  still  among  my  papers  the  memoranda  of  a  second 
review  (for  which  I  failed  to  obtain  a  place),  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  show 
the  untenableness  of  his  theory  of  intellectual  progress.  The  only  doctrine  of 
importance  in  whi<;h  I  agree  with  him — the  relativity  of  ill  knowledge — is  one 
common  to  him  and  sundry  other  thinkers  of  earlier  date ;  and  even  this  I  hold 
in  a  different  sense  from  that  in  which  he  held  it.  But  on  all  points  that  are  dis- 
tinctive of  his  philosophy,  I  differ  from  him.  I  deny  his  Hierarchy  of  the  Sci- 
ences. I  regard  his  division  of  intellectual  progress  into  the  three  phases,  theo- 
logical,  metaphysical,  and  positive,  as  superficial.  I  reject  utterly  his  Religion 
of  Humanity.  And  his  ideal  of  society  I  hold  in  detestation.  Some  of  his  minor 
views  I  accept ;  some  of  his  incidental  remarks  seem  to  mo  to  be  profound,  but 
from  every  thing  which  distinguishes  Comteism  as  a  system,  I  dissent  entirely. 
The  only  influence  on  my  own  course  of  thought  which  I  can  trace  toM.  Comte'a 
writings,  is  the  influence  that  results  from  meeting  with  antagonistic  opinions 
definitely  expressed. 

Such  being  my  position,  you  will,  I  think,  see  that  by  classing  me  as  a  Posi- 
tivist, and  tacitly  including  me  among  the  English  admirers  and  disciples  of 
Comte,  your  reviewer  unintentionally  misrepresents  me.  I  am  quite  ready  to 
bear  the  odium  attaching  to  opinions  which  I  do  hold;  but  I  object  to  have  added 
the  odium  attaching  to  opinions  which  I  do  not  hold.  If,  by  publishing  this  let- 
«er  '.n  your  forthcoming  number,  you  will  allow  me  to  set  myself  right  with  the 
American  public  on  this  matter,  you  will  greatly  oblige  me.  I  am.  Sir,  youi 
C'Dedieut  servant,  Heicbkrt  Si'ukcbe. 


566  OPINIONS   OF  THE   PEESS. 

We  take  the  liberty  of  making  an  extract  from  a  private  Icttei 

of  Mr.  Spencer,  which  contains  some  further  observations  in  tha 

same  connection : 

**  There  appears  to  have  got  abroad  in  the  United  States  a  very  erroneous 
impression  respecting  the  influence  of  Comte's  writings  in  England.  I  suppose 
that  the  currency  obtained  by  the  words  'Positivism*  and  * Positivist,'  is  to 
blame  for  this.  Comte  having  designated  by  the  term  Positive  Philosophy  all 
that  body  of  definitely-established  knowledge  which  men  of  science  have  been 
gradually  organizing  into  a  coherent  body  of  doctrine,  and  having  habitually 
placed  this  in  opposition  to  the  incoherent  body  of  doctrine  defended  by  theolo- 
gians, it  has  become  the  habit  of  the  theological  party  to  think  of  the  antagonist, 
scientific  party  under  this  title  of  Positivists  applied  to  them  by  Comte.  And 
thus,  from  the  habit  of  calling  them  Positivists  there  has  grown  up  the  assump- 
tion that  they  call  themselves  Positivists,  and  that  they  are  the  disciples  of 
Comte,  The  truth  is  that  Comte  and  his  doctrines  receive  here  scarcely  any  at- 
tention. I  know  something  of  the  scientific  world  in  England,  and  I  cannot 
name  a  single  man  of  science  who  acknowledges  himself  a  follower  of  Comte,  or 
accepts  the  title  of  Positivist,  Lest,  however,  there  should  be  some  such  who 
were  unknown  to  me,  I  have  recentlv  made  inquiries  into  the  matter.  To  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall  I  put  the  question  whether  Comte  had  exerted  any  appreciable 
influence  on  his  own  course  of  thought:  and  he  replied,  *So  far  as  I  know,  my 
own  course  of  thought  would  have  been  exactlv  the  same  had  Comte  never  ex- 
isted.' I  then  asked,  *  Do  you  know  any  man  of  science  whose  views  have  been 
affected  by  Comte's  writings?'  and  his  answer  was:  'His  influence  on  scientific 
thought  in  England  is  absolutely  nil,*  To  the  same  questions  Prof.  Huxley  re- 
turned, in  other  words,  the  same  answers.  Professors  Huxley  and  Tyndall, 
being  leaders  in  their  respective  departments,  and  being  also  men  of  general 
culture  and  philosophic  insight,  I  think  that  joining  their  impressions  with  my 
own,  I  am  justified  m  saying  that  the  scientific  world  of  England  is  wholly  unin- 
fluenced by  Comte,  Such  small  influence  as  he  has  had  here  has  been  on  some 
literary  men  and  historians — men  who  wera  attracted  by  the  grand  achieve- 
ments of  science,  who  were  charmed  by  the  plausible  system  of  scientific  gen- 
eralizations put  forth  by  Comte,  with  the  usual  French  regard  for  symmetry  and 
disregard  for  fact,  and  who  were,  from  their  want  of  scientific  training,  unable 
to  detect  the  essential  fallaciousness  of  his  system.  Of  these  the  most  notable 
example  was  the  late  Mr.  Buckle.  Besides  him,  I  can  name  but  seven  men  who 
have  been  in  any  appreciable  degree  influenced  by  Comte ;  and  of  these,  four,  if 
bot  five,  are  scarcely  known  to  tne  public," 


opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  ^^International  Scientific  Series, 


Tyndairs  Forms  of  Water. 

I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth.     Illustrated ;     Price,  $1.50. 

*'  In  the  volume  now  published,  Professor  Tyndall  has  presented  a  noble  illustration 
of  the  acuteness  and  subtlety  of  his  intellectual  powers,  the  scope  and  insight  of  his 
scientific  vision,  his  singular  command  of  the  appropriate  language  of  exposition,  and 
the  peculiar  vivacity  and  grace  with  which  he  unfolds  the  results  of  intricate  scientific 
research." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

"  The  '  Forms  of  Water,'  by  Professor  Tyndall,  is  an  interesting  and  instructive 
little  volume,  admirably  printed  and  illustrated.  Prepared  expressly  for  this  series,  it 
is  in  some  measure  a  guarantee  of  the  excellence  of  the  volumes  that  will  follow,  and  an 
indication  that  the  publishers  will  spare  no  pains  to  include  in  the  series  the  freshest  in- 
vestigations of  the  best  scientific  minds." — Boston  Journal. 

"  This  series  is  admirably  commenced  by  this  little  volume  from  the  pen  of  Prof- 
Tyndall.  A  perfect  master  of  his  subject,  he  presents  in  a  style  easy  and  attractive  his 
methods  of  investigation,  and  the  results  obtained,  and  gives  to  the  reader  a  clear  con- 
c«ption  of  all  the  wondrous  transformations  to  which  water  is  subjected." — Churchman^ 


II. 

Bagehot's  Physics  and  Politics. 

I  vol.,  i2mo.     Price,  $1.50. 

"  If  the  '  International  Scientific  Series '  proceeds  as  it  has  begun,  it  will  more  than 
fulfil  the  promise  given  to  the  reading  public  in  its  prospectus.  The  first  volume,  by 
Professor  Tyndall,  was  a  model  of  lucid  and  attractive  scientific  exposition  ;  and  now 
we  have  a  second,  by  Mr.  Walter  Bagehot,  which  is  not  only  very  lucid  and  charming,^ 
but  also  original  and  suggestive  in  the  highest  degree.  Nowhere  since  the  publication 
of  Sir  Henry  Maine's  'Ancient  Law,'  have  we  seen  so  many  fruitful  thoughts  sug- 
gested in  the  course  of  a  couple  of  hundred  pages.  .  .  .  To  do  justice  to  Mr.  Bage- 
hot's  fertile  book,  would  require  a  long  article.  With  the  best  of  intentions,  we  are 
conscious  of  having  given  but  a  sorry  account  of  it  in  these  brief  paragraphs.  But  we 
hope  we  have  said  enough  to  commend  it  to  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful  reader."— 
Prof.  John  Fiske,  in  the  A  tlaniic  Monthly. 

"  Mr.  Bagehot's  style  is  clear  and  vigorous.  We  refrain  fi-om  giving  a  fuller  ac- 
count of  these  suggestive  essays,  only  because  we  are  sure  that  our  readers  will  find  it 
worth  tlieir  while  to  peruse  the  book  for  themselves ;  and  we  sincerely  hope  that  tho 
forthcoming  parts  of  the  '  International  Scientific  Series '  will  be  as  interesting."—' 
A  thenteum. 

"  Mr.  Bagehot  discusses  an  immense  variety  of  topics  connected  with  the  progress 
of  societies  and  nations,  and  the  development  of  their  distinctive  peculiarities;  and  hi« 
book  shows  an  abundance  of  ingenious  and  original  thought" — ^Alfred  Russeli 
Wallace,  in  Nature. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  $49  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Yr 


opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  ^^International  Scientific  Series.** 

III. 

Foods. 

By   Dr.  EDWARD   SMITH. 
I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth.     Illustrated Price,  $1.75. 

In  making  up  The  International  Scientific  Series,  Dr.  Edward  Smith  was  se- 
lected as  the  ablest  man  in  England  to  treat  the  important  subject  of  Foods.  His  services 
were  secured  for  the  undertaking,  and  the  little  treatise  he  has  produced  shows  that  the 
choice  of  a  writer  on  this  subject  was  most  fortunate,  as  the  book  is  unquestionably  the 
clearest  and  best-digested  compend  of  the  Science  of  Foods  that  has  appeared  in  our 
language. 

"  The  book  contains  a  series  of  diagrams,  dispfeying  the  effects  of  sleep  and  meals 
on  pulsation  and  respiration,  and  of  various  kinds  of  food  on  respiration,  which,  as  the 
results  of  Dr.  Smith's  own  experiments,  possess  a  very  high  value.  We  have  not  fax 
to  go  in  this  work  for  occasions  of  favorable  criticism ;  they  occur  tfiroughout,  but  are 
perhaps  raost  apparent  in  those  parts  of  the  subject  with  which  Dr.  Smith's  name  is  es- 
pecially  linked." — London  Examiner. 

"The  union  of  scientific  and  popular  treatment  in  the  composition  of  this -work  will 
afford  an  attraction  to  many  readers  who  would  have  been  indifferent  to  purely  theoreti- 
cal details.  .  .  .  Still  his  work  abounds  in  information,  much  of  which  is  of  great  value, 
and  a  part  of  which  could  not  easily  be  obtained  from  other  sources.  Its  interest  is  de, 
cidedly  enhanced  for  students  who  demand  both  clearness  and  exactness  of  statement, 
by  the  profusion  of  well-executed  woodcuts,  diagrams,  and  tables,  which  accompany  th? 
volume.  .  .  .  The  suggestions  of  the  author  on  the  use  of  tea  and  coffee,  and  of  the  va- 
rious  forms  of  alcohol,  although  perhaps  not  strictly  of  a  novel  character,  are  highly  ia> 
structive,  and  form  an  interesting  portion  of  the  volume."— iV.  Y.  Tribune. 


Body 


IV. 

and  Mind. 

THE    THEORIES   OF   THEIR   RELATION. 

By  ALEXANDER    BAIN,   LL  D. 

I  vol.,   i2mo.      Cloth Price,  $1.50. 

Professor  Bain  is  the  author  of  two  well-known  standard  works  upon  the  Science 
»f  Mind—"  The  Senses  and  the  Intellect,"  and  ."  The  Emotions  and  the  Will."  He  is 
one  of  the  highest  living  authorities  in  the  school  which  holds  that  there  can  be  no  sound 
or  valid  psychology  unless  the  mind  and  the  body  are  studied,  as  they  exist,  together. 

"  It  contains  a  forcible  statement  of  the  connection  between  mind  and  body,  study- 
ing their  subtile  interworkings  by  the  light  of  the  most  recent  physiological  investiga- 
tions. The  summary  in  Chapter  V.,  of  the  investigations  of  Dr.  Lionel  Beale  of  the 
embodiment  of  the  intellectual  functions  in  the  cerebral  system,  will  be  found  the 
freshest  and  most  interesting  part  of  his  book.  Prof.  Bain's  own  theory  of  the  connec- 
tion between  the  mental  and  the  bodily  part  in  man  is  stated  by  himself  to  be  as  follows : 
There  is  '  one  substance,  with  two  sets  of  properties,  two  sides,  the  physical  and  the 
mental — a  double-faced  unity.'  While,  in  the  strongest  manner,  asserting  the  imion 
of  mind  with  brain,  he  yet  denies  '  the  association  of  union  in  place f'  but  asserts  the 
union  of  close  succession  in  time,'  holding  that  '  the  same  being  is,  by  alternate  fits,  vin- 
der  extended  and  under  unextended  consciousness."  ' — Christian  Register. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


Opi7tions  of  the  Press  on  the  "  International  Scientific  Series, ''^ 


The  Study  of  Sociology. 

By  HERBERT   SPENCER. 
I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth Price,  $1.50. 

"The  philosopher  whose  distinguished  name  gives  weight  and  influence  to  this  vol- 
ume, has  given  in  its  pages  some  of  the  finest  specimens  of  reasoning  in  all  its  forms 
and  departments.  There  is  a  fascination  in  his  array  of  facts,  incidents,  and  opinions, 
which  draws  on  the  reader  to  ascertain  his  conclusions.  The  coolness  and  calmness  of 
his  treatment  of  acknowledged  difficulties  and  grave  objections  to  his  theories  win  for 
him  a  close  attention  and  sustained  effort,  on  the  part  of  the  reader,  to  comprehend,  fol- 
low, grasp,  and  appropriate  his  principles.  This  book,  independently  of  its  bearing 
upon  sociology,  is  valuable  as  lucidly  showing  what  those  essential  characteristics  are 
which  entitle  any  arrangement  and  connection  of  facts  and  deductions  to  be  called  a 
science." — EpiscopaliaTu 

"  This  work  compels  admiration  by  the  evidence  which  it  gives  of  immense  re- 
search, study,  and  observation,  and  is.  withal,  written  in  a  popular  and  very  pleasing 
sryle.     It  is  a  fascinating  work,  as  well  as  one  of  deep  practical  thought." — Bost.  Post. 

"  Herbert  Spencer  is  unquestionably  the  foremost  living  thinker  in  the  psychological 
and  sociological  fields,  and  this  volume  is  an  important  contribution  to  the  science  of 
which  it  treats.  ...  It  will  prove  more  popular  than  any  of  its  author's  other  creations, 
for  it  is  more  plainly  addressed  to  the  people  and  has  a  more  practical  and  less  specu- 
lative cast  It  will  require  thought,  but  it  is  well  worth  tmnking  about." — Albany 
Evening  Journal. 

VI. 

The   New  Chemistry. 

By  JOSIAH  P.  COOKE,  Jr., 

Erving  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Mineralogy  in  Harvard  University. 

I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth Price,  $2.00. 

"The  book  of  Prof.  Cooke  is  a  model  of  the  modem  popular  science  work.  It  has 
just  the  due  proportion  of  fact,  philosophy,  and  true  romance,  to  make  it  a  fascinating 
companion,  either  for  the  voyage  or  the  study." — Daily  Graphic. 

"  This  admirable  monograph,  by  the  distinguished  Erving  Professor  of  Chemistry 
in  Harvard  University,  is  the  first  American  contribution  to  'The  International  Scien- 
tific Series,'  and  a  more  attractive  piece  of  work  in  the  way  of  popular  exposition  upon 
a  difficult  subject  has  not  appeared  in  a  long  rime.  It  not  only  well  sustains  the  char- 
acter of  the  volumes  with  which  it  is  associated,  but  its  reproduction  in  European  coun- 
tries will  be  an  honor  to  American  science." — Neiv  York  Tribune. 

"  All  the  chemists  in  the  country  will  enjoy  its  perusal,  and  many  will  seize  upon  it 
as  a  thing  longed  for.  For,  to  those  advanced  students  who  have  kept  well  abreast  of 
the  chemical  tide,  it  offers  a  calm  philosophy.  To  those  others,  youngest  of  the  class, 
who  have  emerged  from  the  schools  since  new  methods  have  prevailed,  it  presents  a 
generalization,  drawing  to  its  use  all  the  data,  the  relations  of  which  the  newly-fledged 
fact-seeker  may  but  dimly  perceive  without  its  aid.  ...  To  the  old  chemists,  Prof. 
Cooke's  treatise  is  like  a  message  from  beyond  the  mountain.  ITiey  have  heard  0/ 
changes  in  the  science;  the  clash  of  tKe  battle  of  old  and  new  theories  has  stirred  them 
from  afar.  The  tidings,  too,  had  come  that  the  old  had  given  way ;  and  little  more  than 
this  they  knew.  .  .  .  Prof  Cooke's  '  New  Chemistry*  must  do  wide  service  in  bringing 
to  close  sight  the  little  known  and  the  longed  for.  ...  As  a  philosophy  it  is  elemen- 
tary, but,  ai  a  book  of  science,  ordinary  readers  will  find  it  sufficiently  advanced."-" 
Utica  Morning  Herald. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


Opiniofts  of  the  Press  on  the  ''^International  Scientific  Series." 

VII. 

The  Conservation  of  Energy. 

By  BALFOUR  STEWART,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S. 

IViik  an  Appendix  treating  of  the  Vital  and  Menial  Applications  of  the  Doctrine. 

I  vol.,  i2ino.     Cloth.    Price,  $1.50. 

"  The  author  has  succeeded  in  presenting  the  facts  in  a  clear  and  satisfactory  manner, 
using  simple  language  and  copious  illustration  in  the  presentation  of  facts  and  prin- 
ciples, confining  himself,  however,  to  the  physical  aspect  of  the  subject.  In  the  Ap- 
pendix the  operation  of  the  principles  in  the  spheres  of  life  and  miiid  is  supplied  by 
the  essays  of  Professors  Le  Conte  and  Bain." — Ohio  Farmer. 

"  Prof.  Stewart  is  one  of  the  best  known  teachers  in  Owens  College  in  Manchester. 

**  The  volume  of  The  International  Scientific  Series  now  before  us  is  an  ex- 
cellent illustration  of  the  true  method  of  teaching,  and^will  well  compare  with  Prof. 
Tyndall's  charming  little  book  in  the  same  series  on  '  FoVms  of  Water,"  with  illustra- 
tions enough  to  make  clear,  but  not  to  conceal  his  thoughts,  in  a  style  simple  and 
brief." — Christian  Register,  Bostoft. 

"  The  writer  has  wonderful  ability  to  compress  much  information  into  a  few  words. 
It  is  a  rich  treat  to  read  such  a  book  as  this,  when  there  is  so  much  beauty  and  force 
combined  with  such  simplicity. — Eastern  Press. 


VIII. 

Animal  Locomotion; 

Or,  WALKING,   SWIMMING,  AND  FLYING. 

With  a  Dissertation  on  Aeronautics. 

By  J.  BELL  PETTIGREW,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  F.  R.  S.  E., 
F.  R.C.  P.E. 

I  vol.,  i2mo Price,  $1.75. 

"This  work  is  more  than  a  contribution  to  the  stock  of  entertaining  knowledge, 
though,  if  it  only  pleased,  that  would  be  sufficient  excuse  for  its  publication.  But  Dr. 
Pettigrevvr  has  given  his  time  to  these  investigations  with  the  ultimate  purpose  of  solv- 
ing  the  difficult  problem  of  Aeronautics.  To  this  he  devotes  the  last  fifty  pages  of  hii 
book.  Dr.  Pettigrew  is  confident  that  man  will  yet  conquer  the  domain  of  the  air."— 
N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce. 

"  Most  persons  claim  to  know  how  to  walk,  but  few  could  explain  the  mechanicnl 
I)rinciples  involved  in  this  most  ordinary  transaction,  and  will  he  suri)rised  that  the 
movements  of  bipeds  and  quadrupeds,  the  darting  and  rushing  motion  of  fish,  and  the 
erratic  flight  of  the  denizens  of  the  air,  are  not  only  anologous,  but  can  be  reduced  to 
similar  formula.  The  work  is  profusely  illustrated,  and,  without  reference  to  the  theory 
it  is  designed  to  expound,  will  be  regarded  as  a  valuable  addition  to  natural  history." 
—Omaha  Republic. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y« 


opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  ^^International  Scientific  SeriesJ*^ 

IX. 

Responsibility  in  Mental  Disease. 

By  HENRY   MAUDSLEY,    M.  D., 

Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians ;  Professor  of  Medical  Jurisprudence 
in  University  College,  London. 

I  vol.,  l2mo.     Cloth.     .     .     Price,  $1.50. 

"  Having  lectured  in  a  medical  college  on  Mental  Disease,  this  book  has  been  a 
feast  to  us.  It  handles  a  great  subject  in  a  masterly  manner,  and,  in  our  judgnjent,  the 
positions  taken  by  the  author  are  correct  and  well  sustained." — Pastor  and  People. 

"The  author  is  at  home  in  his  subject,  and  presents  his  views  in  an  almost  singu- 
larly clear  and  satisfactory  manner.  .  .  .  The  volume  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  one 
of  the  most  difficult,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  important  subjects  of  inves- 
tigation at  the  present  day." — N.  V.  Observer. 

*'  It  is  a  work  profound  and  searching,  and  aboimds  in  -wi^^ova." —Pittsburg  Com- 
mercial. 

"  Handles  the  important  topic  with  masterly  power,  and  its  suggestions  are  prac- 
tical and  of  great  value." — Providence  Press. 

X. 

The  Science  of  Law. 

By  SHELDON  AMOS,  M.  A., 

Professor  of  Jurisprudence  in  University  College,  London;  author  of  "A  Systematic 

View  of  the  Science  of  Jurisprudence,"  "An  English  Code,  its  Difficulties 

and  the  Modes  of  overcoming  them,"  etc.,  etc. 

I  vol.,  l2mo.     Cloth Price,  $1.75. 

"The  valuable  series  of  'International  Scientific'  works,  prepared  by  eminent  spe- 
cialists, with  the  intention  of  popularizing  information  in  their  several  branches  of 
knowledge,  has  received  a  good  accession  in  this  compact  and  thoughtful  volume.  It 
is  a  difficult  task  to  give  the  outlines  of  a  complete  theory  of  law  in  a  portable  volume, 
which  he  who  runs  may  read,  and  probably  Professor  Amos  himself  would  be  the  last 
to  claim  that  he  has  perfecdy  succeeded  in  doing  this.  But  he  has  certainly  done  much 
to  clear  the  science  of  law  from  the  technical  obscurities  which  darken  it  to  minds  which 
have  had  no  legal  training,  and  to  make  clear  to  his  '  lay'  readers-tn  how  true  and  high  a 
sense  it  can  assert  its  right  to  be  considered  a  science,  and  not  a  mere  practice." — Th£ 
Christian  Register. 

"The  works  of  Bentham  and  Austin  are  abstruse  and  philosophical,  and  Maine's 
require  hard  study  and  a  certain  amount  of  special  training.  The  writers  also  pursue 
different  lines  of  investigation,  and  can  only  be  regarded  as  comprehensive  in  the  de- 
partments they  confined  themselves  to.  It  was  left  to  Amos  to  gather  up  the  result 
and  present  the  science  in  its  fullness.  The  unquestionable  merits  of  this,  his  last  book, 
are,  that  it  contains  a  complete  treatment  of  a  subject  which  has  hitherto  been  handled 
by  specialists,  and  it  opens  up  that  subject  to  every  inquiring  mind.  ...  To  do  justice 
to  '  The  Science  of  Law '  would  require  a  longer  review  than  we  have  space  for.  Wo 
have  read  no  more  interesting  and  instructive  book  for  some  time.  Its  themes  concern 
every  one  who  renders  obedience  to  laws,  and  who  would  have  those  laws  the  best 
possible.  The  tide  of  legal  reform  which  set  in  fifty  years  ago  has  to  sweep  yet  highei 
if  the  flaws  in  our  jurisprudence  are  to  be  removed.  The  process  of  change  cannot  be 
better  guided  than  by  a  well-informed  public  mind,  and  Prof.  Amos  has  done  great 
service  in  materially  helping  to  promote  this  ^nd."—'BuJfalo  Courier. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  ^^International  Scientific  Series,'* 

XI. 

Animal  Mechanism, 

A  Treatise  on  Terrestrial  and  Aerial  Locomotion, 

By  E.  J.  MAREY, 

Professor  at  the  College  of  France,  and  Member  of  the  Academy  of  Medicine. 

With  XI7  Illustrations,  drawn  and  engraved  under  the  direction  of  the  author. 

1  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth Price,  $1.75 

"  We  hope  that,  in  the  short  glance  which  we  have  taken  of  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant points  discussed  in  the  work  before  us,  we  have  succeeded  in  interesting  our 
readers  sufficiently  in  its  contents  to  make  them  curious  to  learn  more  of  its  subject- 
matter.     We  cordially  recommend  it  to  their  attention. 

"The  author  of  the  present  work,  it  is  well  known,  stands  at  the  head  of  those 
physiologists  who  have  investigated  the  mechanism  of  animal  dynamics — indeed,  we 
may  almost  say  that  he  has  made  the  subject  his  own.  By  the  originality  of  his  con- 
ceptions, the  ingenuity  of  his  constructions,  the  skill  of  his  analysis,  and  the  persever- 
ance of  his  investigations,  he  has  surpassed  all  others  in  the  power  of  unveiling  the 
complex  and  intricate  movements  of  animated  beings."— Fo/ular  Science  Monthly. 


XII. 

History   of  the   Conflict    between 
Religion  and  Science. 

By  JOHN  WILLIAM  DRAPER,  M.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Author  of  "  The  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe." 
I  vol.,  i2mo. Price,  $1.75. 

"  This  little  '  History '  would  have  been  a  valuable  contribution  to  literature  at  any 
time,  and  is,  in  fact,  an  admirable  text-book  upon  a  subject  that  is  at  present  engross- 
ing the  attention  of  a  large  number  of  the  most  serious-minded  people,  and  it  is  no 
small  compliment  to  the  sagacity  of  its  distinguished  author  that  he  has  so  well  gauged 
the  requirements  of  the  times,  and  so  adequately  met  them  by  the  preparation  of  this 
volume.  It  remains  to  be  added  that,  while  the  writer  has  flinched  from  no  responsi- 
bility in  his  statements,  and  has  written  with  entire  fidelity  to  the  demands  of  truth 
and  justice,  there  is  not  a  word  in  his  book  that  can  give  offense  to  candid  and  fair- 
minded  readers." — N.  V.  Evening  Post. 

"  The  key-note  to  this  volume  is  found  in  the  antagonism  between  the  progressive 
tendencies  of  the  human  mind  and  the  pretensions  of  ecclesiastical  autliority,  as  dcvel- 
oped  in  the  history  of  modern  science.  No  previous  writer  has  treated  the  subject 
froni  this  point  of  view,  and  the  present  monograph  will  be  foimd  to  possess  no  less 
originality  of  conception  than  vigor  of  reasoning  and  wealth  of  erudition.  .  .  .  The 
method  of  Dr.  Draper,  in  his  treatment  of  the  various  questions  that  come  up  for  dis- 
cussion, is  marked  by  singular  impartiality  as  well  as  consummate  ability.  Through- 
out his  work  he  maintains  the  position  of  an  historian,  not  of  an  advocnte.  His  tone  is 
tranquil  and  serene,  as  becomes  the  search  after  truth,  with  no  trace  of  the  impassioned 
ardor  of  controversy.  He  endeavors  so  far  to  identify  himself  with  the  contending 
parties  as  to  gain  a  clear  comprehension  of  their  motives,  but,  at  the  same  time,  h« 
submits  their  actions  to  the  tests  of  a  cool  and  impartial  examination." — N.  V.  Tribune. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  "  International  Scientific  Series,^* 

XIII. 
THE   DOCTRINE   OF 

Descent,    and    Darwinism. 

By  OSCAR  SCHMIDT, 
Professor  in  the  University  of  Strasburg. 

With  26  Woodcuts. 
I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth Price,  $1.50. 

"  The  entire  subject  Is  discussed  with  a  freshness,  as  well  as  an  elaboration  of  de- 
tail, that  renders  his  work  interesting  in  a  more  than  usual  degree.  The  facts  upon 
which  the  Darwinian  theory  is  based  are  presented  in  an  effective  manner,  conclusions 
are  ably  defended,  and  the  question  is  treated  in  more  compact  and  available  style 
than  in  any  other  work  on  the  same  topic  that  has  yet  appeared.  It  is  a  valuable  ad- 
dition to  the  *  International  Scientific  Series.'  " — Boston  Post. 

"The  present  volume  is  the  thirteenth  of  the  'International  Scientific  Series,'  and 
is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  of  them.  The  subject-matter  is  handled  with  a 
great  deal  of  skill  and  earnestness,  and  the  courage  of  the  author  in  avowing  his  opin- 
ions is  much  to  his  credit.  .  .  .  This  volume  certainly  merits  a  careful  perusal." — 
Hartford  Evening  Post. 

"  The  volume  which  Prof.  Schmidt  has  devoted  to  this  theme  Is  a  valuable  contri- 
bution to  the  Darwinian  literature.  Philosophical  in  method,  and  eminently  candid, 
it  shows  not  only  the  ground  which  Darwin  had  in  his  researches  made,  and  conclu- 
sions reached  before  him  to  plant  his  theory  upon,  but  shows,  also,  what  that  theory 
really  is,  a  point  upon  which  many  good  people  who  talk  very  earnestly  about  the 
matter  are  very  imperfectly  informed." — Detroit  Free  Press. 


XIV. 

The  Chemistry  of  Light  and 
Photography ; 

In  its  Application  to  Art,  Science,  and  Industry. 

By  Dr.  HERMANN  VOGEI, 
Professor  In  the  Royal  Industrial  Academy  of  Berlin. 

With  100  Illustrations. 
l2mo Price,  $2.00. 

"  Out  of  Photography  has  sprung  a  new  science — the  Chemistry  of  Light— and,  in 
giving  a  popular  view  to  the  one,  Dr.  Vo^el  has  presented  an  analysis  of  the  principles 
and  processes  of  the  other.  His  treatise  is  as  entertaining  as  it  is  instructive,  pleas- 
antly combining  a  history  of  the  progress  and  practice  of  photography — from  the  first 
rough  experiments  of  Wedgwood  and  Davy  with  sensitized  paper,  in  1802,  down  to 
the  latest  improvements  of  the  art — with  technical  illustrations  of  the  scientific  theories 
on  which  the  art  is  based.  It  is  the  first  attempt  in  any  manual  of  photography  to  set 
forth  adequately  the  just  claims  of  the  invention,  both  from  an  artistic  and  a  scientific 
point  of  view,  and  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  effort  has  been  ably  conducted."—* 
Chicago  Tribune. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  ^^ Interfiational  Scientific  Series.'" 


XV. 


Fungi 


THEIR  NATURE,  INFLUENCE,  AND   USES. 

By  M.  C.  COOKE,  M.  A.,  LL.  D. 

Edited  by  Rev.  M.  J.  BERKELEY,  M.  A.,  F.  L.  S. 

With  109  Illustrations.     Price,  $1.50. 

"  Even  if  the  name  of  the  author  of  this  work  were  not  deservedly  eminent,  that  of 
the  editor,  who  has  long  stood  at  the  head  of  the  British  fungologists,  would  be  a  suf- 
ficient voucher  for  the  accuracy  of  one  of  the  best  botanical  monographs  ever  issued 
from  the  press.  .  .  .  The  structure,  germination,  and  growth  of  all  these  widely-dif- 
fused organisms,  their  habitats  and  influences  for  good  and  evil,  are  systematically 
described." — New  York  World. 

"Dr.  Cooke's  book  contains  an  admirable  risunii o{  what  is  known  on  the  struct- 
ure, growth,  and  reproduction  of  fungi,  together  with  ample  bibliographical  references 
to  original  sources  of  information." — London  A  thencEUjn. 

"The  production  of  a  work  like  the  one  now  under  review  represents  a  large 
amount  of  laborious,  difficult,  and  critical  work,  and  one  in  which  a  serious  slip  or  fatal 
error  would  be  one  of  the  easiest  matters  possible,  but,  as  far  as  we  are  able  to  judge, 
the  new  hand-book  seems  in  every  way  well  suited  to  the  requirements  of  all  beginners 
in  the  difficult  and  involved  study  of  fungology." — The  Gardener's  Chronicle  {/.on- 

d07l). 

XVI. 

The  Life  and  Growth  of  Language: 

AN    OUTLINE    OF    LINGUISTIC    SCIENCE. 

By  WILLIAM  DWIGHT  WHITNEY, 

Professor  of  Sanskrit  and  Comparative  Philology  in  Yale  College. 

I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth.     Price,  $1.50. 

"  Prof  Whitney  is  to  be  commended  for  giving  to  the  public  the  results  of  his  ripe 
scholarship  and  unusually  profound  researches  in  simple  language.  He  draws  illus- 
trations and  examples  of  the  principles  whfch  he  wishes  to  impa**,  from  common  life 
and  the  words  in  frequent  use. 

"  The  topics  discussed  in  this  volume  are,  for  the  most  part,  those  which  have 
been  already  treated  by  other  writers  on  philolog>',  and  even  by  the  author  himself,  in 
his  volume  on  '  Language,  and  the  Study  of  Language,'  published  a  few  years  ago, 
and,  though  many  of  the  truths  here  set  forth  are  those  with  which  students  in  the 
same  line  of  investigation  are  generally  familiar,  all  will  rejoice  to  see  them  restated  in 
such  a  fresh  and  simple  way. 

"This  work,  while  valuable  to  scholars,  will  be  interesting  to  every  one." — The 
Churckjnan. 

"  This  work  is  an  important  contribution  to  a  science  which  has  advanced  steadily 
under  conditions  that  appear  constantly  to  throw  an  increasing  light  on  difficult  ques- 
tions, and  at  each  step  clear  the  way  for  further  discoveries." — Chicago  Jnter-Occan. 

"  Prof.  Whitney  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  foremost  of  English-speaking  philologists, 
and  occupies  an  enviable  position  in  the  wider  circle  of  European  students  of  language. 

"His  style,  clear,  simple,  picturesque,  abounding  in  striking  illustrations,  and  apt 
in  comparisons,  is  admirably  fitted  to  he  the  vehicle  of  a  popular  treatise  like  the  work 
under  consideration." — Portla7id  Daily  Press. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  ''^  International  Scientific  Series^ 

XVII. 

Money  and  the  Mechanism  of  Ex- 
change. 

By  W.  STANLEY  JEVONS,  M.  A.,  F.  R.  S, 

Professor  of  Logic  and  Political  Economy  in  the  Owens  College,  Manchester. 

I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth.    Price,  $1.75. 

"  He  offers  us  what  a  clear-sighted,  cool-headed,  scientific  student  has  to  say  on  the 
nature,  properties,  and  natural  laws  of  money,  without  regard  to  local  interests  or  na- 
tional bias.  His  work  is  popularly  written,  and  every  page  is  replete  with  solid  instruc- 
tion of  a  kind  that  is  just  now  lamentably  needed  by  multitudes  of  our  people  who  are 
victimized  by  the  grossest  fallacies." — Poptilar  Science  Monthly. 

"If  Professor  J evons's  book  is  read  as  extensively  as  it  deserves  to  be,  we  shall 
have  sounder  views  on  the  use  and  abuse  of  money,  and  more  correct  ideas  on  what  a 
circulating  medium  really  means." — Boston  Saturday  Eveni7ig  Gazette. 

"Professor  Jevons  writes  in  a  sprightly  but  colorless  style,  without  trace  of  either 
prejudice  or  mannerism,  and  shows  no  commitment  to  any  theory.  The  time  is  not 
very  far  distant,  we  hop^,  when  legislators  will  cease  attempting  to  legislate  upon 
money  before  they  know  what  money  is,  and,  as  a  possible  help  toward  such  a  change. 
Professor  Jevons  deserves  the  credit  of  having  made  a  useful  contribution  to  a  depart- 
ment of  study  long  too  much  neglected,  but  of  late  years,  we  are  gratified  to  say,  be- 
coming less  so." — The  Financier,  New  York. 


XVIII. 

The  Nature  of  Light, 

WITH   A  GENERAL  ACCOUNT  OF  PHYSICAL  OPTICS. 

By  Dr.  EUGENE  LOMMEL 

(University  of  Erlangen). 

I  vol.,  i2mo.     Cloth.        .         .         .         Price,  $2.00. 

"  In  the  present  treatise,  Professor  Lommel  has  given  an  admirable  outline  of  the 
nature  of  light  and  the  laws  of  optics. 

•'  Unlike  most  other  writers  on  this  subject,  the  author  has,  we  think,  wisely  post- 
poned all  reference  to  theories  of  the  nature  of  light,  until  the  laws  of  reflection,  re- 
fraction, and  absorption,  have  been  clearly  set  before  the  reader.  Then,  in  the  fifteenth 
chapter.  Professor  Lommel  discusses  Fresnel's  famous  interference  experiment,  and 
leads  the  reader  to  see  that  the  undulatory  theory  is  the  only  conclusion  that  can  be 
satisfactorily  arrived  at.  A  clear  exposition  is  now  given  of  Huyghen's  theory,  after 
which  follow  several  chapters  on  the  diffraction  and  polarization  of  light-bearing  waves. 

"  The  reader  is  thus  led  onward  much  in  the  same  way  as  the  science  itself  has  un- 
folded, and  this,  we  think,  is  the  surest  and  best  way  of  teaching  natural  knowledge. 

"  Wc  have  said  enough  to  show  that  Professor  Lommel's  treatise  is  a  useful  contri- 
bution to  the  'International  Series' — a  book  that  can  thoroughly  be  understood  and 
enjoyed  by  any  intelligent  reader  who  may  not  have  had  any  special  scientific  train- 
ing."— Nature. 

"  In  a  style  singularly  lucid,  considering  the  abstruse  nature  of  the  subject  treated. 
Dr.  Lommel  unfolds  the  learning  of  the  scientists  on  the  nature  and  phenomena  of 
light." — Philadelphia  Inquirer. 

"  As  a  popular  introduction  to  physical  optics,  it  would  be  diflScult  to  find  a  more 
satisfactory  work  than  the  one  by  Dr.  Lommel,  which  has  just  appeared  in  the  excel- 
lent '  International  Scientific  Series.'  " — The  English  Mechanic. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


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